


I Want A Girl

by Catitia



Category: Outlast (Video Games)
Genre: Blood and Gore, Body Horror, F/M, Horror, Mutilation, Shameless Smut, Suspense
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-11
Updated: 2016-02-03
Packaged: 2018-05-13 04:49:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 27,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5695435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Catitia/pseuds/Catitia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Employed as a psychologist at Mount Massive asylum, Kasha Muller can't seem to shake the unbearable feeling of uneasiness within the pit of her stomach about her place of employment. After receiving Eddie Gluskin as a patient, things begin to go downhill as she finds herself sympathizing with his case, and the infamous outbreak commences.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Beginning of the End

August 12th, 2012.

"So, tell me... What does the face in the wall say to you, Robert?" Kasha Müller asked, keeping her tone of voice as calm as she could. She leaned forward on her desk, resting on her elbows, her hands intertwined in front of her as her brown eyes skeptically eyed her patient.

The patient in front of her, a young man by the name of Robert Smith, had been restrained to his chair. His wrists and ankles had been restrained with leather straps, his arms pressed against the arms of the chair. He stuttered, "I-It tells me... That I'm a bad man. Am I a bad man, ma'am? Is that why I'm here?" His voice was frail, and his emaciated body shook nervously.

Kasha's wine red painted lips turned upward into a faint smile. "No, Robert. The patients here within Mount Massive asylum are all here for treatment. You're not a bad man. The face in the wall wants you to believe that you're a bad man." Kasha shifted her gaze away from Robert to curiously glance over his patient file. She skimmed over it once more, making sure that she'd read everything correctly.

"... Smith has a criminal record of incestuous sexual assault, which resulted in the homicide of his assault victim; his mother..." Kasha read the file, a small sigh escaping through her nose. Honestly, this wasn't particularly unusual. She'd seen far, far worse than this from various other patients.

"Mommy always told me that... I was a good boy. But the face says otherwise." Robert was beginning to throw himself through loop holes. No matter what Kasha said to him, he didn't appear to be listening. Suddenly, he began yanking against his own restraints rather violently. "MOMMY SAID THAT I'M A GOOD BOY!" He yelled, fidgeting viciously. "TELL ME I'M A GOOD BOY, YOU WHORE!" He roared, making eye contact with Kasha.

Kasha simply sighed, rolled her eyes, and pressed the button under her desk to request a patient extraction. Shortly after she'd pressed the button, two men, both dressed in the same medical attire, entered the room and detained Robert Smith. They took him from Kasha's office, while he kicked and screamed the entire way.

Kasha's therapist facade broke the moment her office door had shut behind the men. She stood up and walked away from her desk, pulling out a cigarette from her purse, which rested at the edge of her desk. She'd only just recently been hired as a therapist in this asylum about a month ago, but already, it had felt like an eternity. She grabbed her lighter and lit her cigarette, regardless of the strict rules that had been placed against smoking within the asylum. "Fuck it." She mumbled to herself, her shoulders rising and falling with a shrug. "I don't get paid nearly enough for this shit." Her voice was naturally slightly low, but smooth. She had what could be perceived as a "sultry" voice; that is, when she wasn't forcing the facade of a therapist upon herself. 

Her interest in psychology was genuine, but she could never have anticipated this level of intensity when it came to the mental instability of her daily clients. It was beginning to wear on her. Before working here, Kasha had worked as a therapist in a number of different asylums. None of them were nearly as horrendous as this one, in terms of the severity of the patients' illnesses. Not only that, but this place was absurdly strict. Upon being hired under the Murkoff corporation, Kasha was made to sign contract after contract consenting to complete and total isolation under her employment; it was stated in her contracts rather clearly that she would not be permitted any form of communication with her family or her friends. Of course, it intimidated her. But, she was desperate for employment at the time. Regardless; whatever was going on here... The head honchos of Murkoff wanted to keep it a top secret. The secrecy wasn't sitting well with her; it was leaving a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach. 

Kasha's office also doubled as her living quarters. Opposite of her desk, at the furthest side of the room, was the door leading to her bedroom and bathroom. She made her way through the door, her heeled, black shoes clacking against the wooden floor with each step. She heard the phone on her desk begin to ring as she entered; she decided to ignore it. Fuck it, she needed to piss. They could wait. Kasha entered her small bathroom, which was as pristine as ever, and looked herself over in the mirror for a moment. She silently scowled at her work uniform. It looked too... Refined for her taste. She'd currently been wearing the standard uniform for the employees that weren't working in the medical labs below; a collared, white button up shirt. Although, of course, Kasha had unbuttoned the first two buttons on the shirt, and rolled up her sleeves to her elbows. She felt inclined to rebel against the overly conservative dress code in the little ways she could. Below, she'd been wearing a tight black pencil skirt that reached down to her knees; her employee identification card had been pinned to the pocket on her chest. Kasha was a fully figured woman, and her work uniform certainly complimented that, accentuating her hourglass physique.

Her obsidian colored hair, naturally being long enough to fall over her breasts, had currently been tied up into a messy bun to retain some professionalism; normally, she preferred to simply wear her hair down. She took advantage of the rare moment of peace; touching her makeup up, powdering her pale skin, and fixing up any imperfections that her winged eyeliner had suffered.

Shortly afterward, she went back into her office. Her phone was still ringing. Ugh. Kasha put out her partially smoked cigarette and picked up the phone, enacting her much higher pitched "therapist" voice. "This is Doctor Müller, how can I help you?" She answered. God, she hated doing this voice. But, hey, it got her a pay check at the end of the day.

"Ms. Müller? This is Jeremy." Came the slightly passive aggressive male voice from the other line, to which Kasha rolled her eyes. Jeremy Blaire? Oh, fantastic. One of her bosses. What'd she do now?

"We have employee complaints of your office stinking of cigarette smoke. You wouldn't happen to be smoking against company policies now would you, Ms. Müller?" His tone of voice only got more passive aggressive with each word that he spewed from his mouth. He continued, "You are aware of our policies, correct? Smoking in the asylum is strictly forbidden; and there will be consequences if you're caught doing it, I assure you."

Kasha, honestly, was absolutely baffled. First of all, how in the fuck did they file a complaint so god damned quickly? That was... Almost creepy. And secondly, was Jeremy Blaire seriously threatening her right now over a simple cigarette? Policies or not, that was thoroughly excessive. Kasha cleared her throat, restraining the anger in her voice. "You're mistaken, Mr. Blaire. I assure you." She mocked, while simultaneously throwing the rest of her cigarette out of her window, along with the rest of her pack. "Although, my office has been stinking of cigarettes lately... Perhaps it's someone in the room below mine. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some patients to see."

"I really shouldn't be having to warn you about our policies, Ka-"

"Goodbye, Mr. Blaire. It was a pleasure speaking with you." Kasha interjected, putting her phone back on the receiver. Fuck, she wasn't planning on staying in this dump for much longer. She needed a new job. She leaned against her office desk, looking at at the ceiling aimlessly. "What a fucking joke. Flipping the hell out over a damned cigarette? Unbelievable. I can only imagine what Jeremy Blaire would do if I left a bag of flaming dog shit in front of his office door." She snickered to herself, grinning. "Maybe, when I quit, that's what I'll do on my last day."

~/~

June 9th, 2013

A year ago, Kasha had sworn to herself that she would quit this shitty job. After that whole cigarette incident, Jeremy had done some investigating, and had subsequently found the discarded cigarettes outside of Kasha's window. He put the pieces together, and had confronted her. However, she once again managed to weasel her way out of it.

After that incident, Kasha knew that the horrible feeling that she'd always felt in the pit of her stomach about this place was justified; no company was this excessively strict about a simple regulation. A normal company would simply have given her a write up and a slap on the wrist, as opposed to threatening her employment.

Kasha had tried to quit. Numerous times. However, one of the conditions that she'd consented to on one of the various contracts stated that she, by law, was required to serve the Murkoff corporation for at least five years. Frankly, she was beginning to feel like a prisoner. She'd spoken with her co-workers, and some of them had felt the same way. Some of them hadn't even spoken to their wives or children in years. This was highly alarming, and it raised all of the red flags in the world for Kasha.

Kasha sat at her desk, scribbling her thoughts away in her personal journal. However, she was interrupted by her phone ringing. She picked up, "Hello, you've reached Kasha Müller. How can I assist you?" She answered, putting on the voice. The dreaded voice.

"Hello, ma'am? We have a patient for you to see today. He's scheduled for an interview with you. However, he's a high risk patient. We'll be issuing two security guards for your protection."

Well, that sounded promising. Hey, at least it made her day a little more interesting. She'd been bored shit less anyway. She smirked, "That sounds great. Can I have his name and patient number, please? It's for the documentation of his session here with me today." Kasha responded professionally, getting her pen and paper ready.

"His patient number is 196, and his name is Eddie Gluskin. Age: 46."

Oh, boy. This guy. Today was definitely going to be fun. "Thank you, send him in." She hung up the phone.

She'd vaguely heard of Eddie Gluskin from her co-workers, who'd tried to interview him before, but were unsuccessful. Apparently, he was... One of the far more mentally disturbed patients here. Whenever he left his cell, he needed to be restrained and escorted by three different security guards. One of Kasha's co-workers had been physically assaulted by him once, evidently.

Kasha simply waited.

After some time passed by, finally, a knock came at her door. "Come in, gentlemen." She politely gestured, silently gagging at her own facetious mannerisms, to which they opened the door. Two armed security guards held Gluskin by his arms, even though his arms had already been restrained with a leather strap behind his back. Once they'd sat Gluskin down in the chair in front of Kasha and had properly restrained him, using an extra restraint around his torso in addition to the normal restraints around his wrists and ankles, the two guards backed off and stood at either side of him.

Eddie Gluskin was a pale-skinned, broadly shouldered fellow. His hair was in a slightly unusual style for the patients here, being shaved bald on either side of his head with the exception of a strip of black hair being slicked back with gel at the center of his head. He had quite a strong jaw line, and a strangely handsome face. One of the security guards handed Kasha his official patient file, and she read it over carefully before proceeding with the session, as she normally did. As she was reading his file, Gluskin lifted his head to look Kasha over curiously, his strikingly blue eyes wandering.

"You're very beautiful, you know." He said, his voice surprisingly eloquent and smooth. He eyed Kasha like she was his prey. "There aren't very many women here. You're quite an exception."

Kasha ignored him. Honestly, a lot of patients said that to her during her sessions with them. She'd grown attuned to the art of manipulation.

Kasha's mouth slumped into a flat line once she read further into his file. She'd read a lot of atrocious patient files, but never a patient file that played the patient out to be a victim. "... records indicate a past of incestuous trauma during his childhood years..." She read, scanning the document over. "... the experience was traumatically violent, as photographic evidence has proven..." The document also stated that, in Eddie's past, he'd been known to mutilate women. Kasha would need to question him on that. Just as Kasha read that last line of text, however, the second security guard presented Kasha with an envelop. She opened it, and pulled out two pictures along with a post-it note with a message scribbled on to it. It read: "Ms. Muller – When interviewing Eddie Gluskin, present these pictures to him. Proceed with caution. It has been years since he's seen these photographs, and they will likely incite an unpleasant reaction out of him."

Kasha took a look at the photographs.

She had to physically restrain herself from gasping, or giving any kind of reaction to the pictures. Both pictures depicted two older men, with a small boy in the center of the two of them. Presumably Gluskin. In one photograph, one of the older men had been penetrating the younger boy anally while the other penetrated him orally simultaneously. In the second photograph, the two older men seemed to be proudly presenting the "work" that they'd done on the small boy, clearly showing the blood dripping from the boy's anal cavity. She felt ill. 

Kasha sighed, and shook her head. A wave of sympathy and nausea washed over her as she finally lifted her head to make eye contact with her patient. She set the photographs down. Honestly, she felt like fucking burning them. How could human beings be so evil and insidious?

"Hello, Eddie. I'm Doctor Muller." Kasha began, fixing her posture. "I've got some questions for you today, are you willing to comply?"

Gluskin nodded. "For you, darling, I'll indulge your curiosity."

Kasha cleared her throat. "Have you achieved a lucid dreaming state during your last exposure to the Morphogenic Engine?"

Gluskin seemed to suddenly perk up, "Ah, yes! I have! I have constant control of my dream state, doctor."

Ah, crap. That couldn't have been right. The documentation in front of Kasha had stated otherwise. He must have been lying... Probably telling her exactly what she wanted to hear. She wrote that down in her assessment of him.

She proceeded, not confronting him on his blatant lie. "How do you feel, Eddie? Has your mind been clear?"

Again, Gluskin assumed the overly cheery attitude. It was very obviously a facade. "Clearer than your eyes, darling. Crisp... Clean... Clear... And fresh. I haven't felt this sane in months!"

Kasha raised an eyebrow. "My eyes are brown, Eddie." Obviously, brown eyes couldn't be "clear."

Gluskin grinned mischievously. The woman was smart... He'd give her that.

"So, is that your way of telling me that every word that you've spoken to me this far is nothing but sheer sarcasm?" Kasha said, her voice assuming a more assertive, confrontational tone.

"Perceive me however you wish, doctor... My mind is clear. I've achieved complete control of my dreams, even! I see no reason to keep me within this terrible place. This place isn't for the mentally sane, you know."

Kasha moved on. Clearly, he wasn't going to stop trying to convince everyone in this room that he was "sane" now, all of a sudden. She asked the next question, "In your past, records show that you've mutilated and tortured women. Why did you do it?" One of the security guards, at that time, presented Kasha with photographs of Gluskin's female victims. Kasha looked them over for a moment, unphased by the brutal amount of mutilation being depicted, then presented them to him. "You know, these victims. What motivates you to carve women out in such a way? Is it hatred?"

Gluskin almost seemed offended. As if the photos being presented to him were absolutely foreign to him, and like he'd never seen them in his life. He frowned, "The women in those photographs are very much alive, doctor. They're so... Beautiful." He affectionately commented, eyeing the photographs over slowly, drinking them in.

"Eddie... You claim to be "sane," yet you sit here and try to tell me that the women in these photographs are alive? Look..." Kasha suddenly shifted, and she broke her therapist facade completely. She leaned forward, her eyes challengingly narrowing down on her patient. She was losing her patience with him. "If you're seriously trying to tell me that these women are alive, then you belong here. These women are horribly mutilated, Eddie. By your hands."

Again, he seemed quite genuinely offended. Internally, however, behind his delusions and facades, he was enjoying the challenge that this woman was presenting to him. She wasn't like the other therapists. He continued, "No! No, doctor, you belong here if you truly believe that those beautiful women are dead! How dare you!"

Kasha shook her head and sighed, giving up on that topic altogether. It was clear that she wasn't going to get anywhere by arguing with him. She also wrote this little "exchange" down in her assessment: "... He refuses to discuss his victims, both categorically and specifically. When I showed him pictures of the women, he would not admit that they were dead or mutilated." She wrote, putting her pen down. Now, it was time for the final question.

"Tell me about your childhood, Eddie."

She really, really didn't want to ask him this question. She knew that nothing good could come of it.

Much to Kasha's surprise, he again answered enthusiastically. "My childhood... Ah, yes! Yes. It was a grand time, I'd say. I grew up in a wealthy, but simple home... Mommy and Daddy loved each other very much, and I was a curious little boy. I was quite popular at school, too. I had quite the loving relationship with my parents."

God, this sounded like some "Leave It to Beaver" shit. Clearly, this was yet another lie. It was time for Kasha to get a little tougher on this guy. She wasn't afraid of him... Not like everyone else seemed to be. She then grabbed the dreaded pictures that exposed the true nature of his childhood.

Suddenly, Gluskin's face dropped the moment he laid eyes on the pictures.

Kasha felt anxiety bubble up within her.

Suddenly, a maniacal fit of laughter began pouring out from Gluskin's mouth. His whole body moved with his laughter as he hung his head down. However, once he'd lifted his head back up, he'd shifted into a completely different person. He looked directly into Kasha's eyes, and his gaze had been filled with nothing but sheer, raw rage and bitter contempt. "FUCKING PRICKS! FUCKING... FUCKING FILTHY, FILTHY PIGS!" He roared, violently jerking against his restraints. He began incoherently screaming, and Kasha simply silently observed him as he had his episode.

This man was a victim of trauma.

The horrible, homicidal acts that he'd committed would never have been committed if the trauma hadn't been instilled into him in the first place. That much was clear to Kasha.

In her years of studying psychology, she knew when someone had been made into a bad person. Eddie Gluskin was one of those people. And, truly, she felt sympathy towards him.

"Gluskin remains a frustrating interview subject; he's still trying to tell us what he thinks we want to hear, while studiously avoiding certain elements of the truth. The childhood that he claims to have remains an obvious fiction, he's claiming to have up in some kind of "Leave It to Beaver" shit, despite a traumatically violent ongoing sexual experience that is a matter of public and medical record. When I confronted him with the photographs his father and uncle took, he responded with a mixture of laughter and anger..." Kasha wrote, hearing Gluskin's vicious shouting the entire time that she'd been writing and adding information to his official patient file.

"The things... That those men made me do..." He muttered, finally calming down.

Kasha looked up and eyed him sympathetically. "What those filthy pieces of shit did to you shouldn't shape who you are, Eddie. You are not your childhood traumas. I mean that. " Whether Eddie actually processed that advice or not didn't matter to Kasha.

Kasha looked at the time, and realized that their time had been up for the session. "Alright, boys. Time's up. If you guys want to book another session with Eddie for me, that's up to you." The security guards nodded, and moved to release Eddie from the chair and prepared to move him back to his cell.

Kasha, additionally, wrote a letter of advice attached to Gluskin's patient file. It read: "I highly recommend that Eddie Gluskin's exposure to the Morphogenic Engine ceases. If he continues to be exposed, his mental health will rapidly decline. I suspect that the exposure to the engine is doing nothing but harm for his mental health. This man needs proper therapy and treatment for his illnesses, and I'm willing to provide some of that help." She then gave the documents to one of the guards, and he nodded. He knew that he'd need to give that letter of advice to one of the superiors.

Just as the three of them exited Kasha's office, Kasha heard someone say something. It was a soft, "... Thank you."

But she couldn't tell who had said it.

How did she even keep her own sanity while working here?


	2. Familiar Faces

September 17th, 2013

Jeremy Blaire's office had to be one of the most bland, musty rooms in this entire facility. Honestly, it didn't even look like he used it very much. Jeremy Blaire, a man in his late 30's with short, dark brown hair slicked to the side, stood in front of his office desk before Kasha. She'd been seated in a well cushioned chair, her arms folded over her chest.

Silently, Kasha questioned if Jeremy Blaire had ever worn anything other than that pretentiously well tailored, dark blue suit.

His posture was a bit slouched as he supported himself by his arms, leaning back against his desk. "Aside from your... Questionable bullshit, you've been a trusted employee of the Murkoff Corporation for long enough. I've decided that you're worthy of seeing our facility downstairs." He simply stated, eyeing the woman in front of him down with narrowed, defensive eyes. 

Kasha rolled her eyes. "Is this why you called me up here, then? To assess my worth as a human being?"

He shrugged. "Well, unless you'd rather me fire you... Which I would have no problem doing, of course-"

"Okay, okay. I get it." Kasha knew that she would never get truly "fired," anyway. Even if she did, she would never be able to leave this asylum. Was this his way of trying to scare her? She went on, "Just tell me what you need to tell me, and get to the point."

"What a disrespectful way to speak to your boss, young lady!" He said, his voice dripping with passive aggressive sarcasm. Regardless, he went on. "Like I said before, it's time for you to take the next step in your career here; and I'm not talking about a promotion, so don't get your hopes up. Today, you're taking a trip down to the Morphogenic Engine."

Kasha was slightly surprised, honestly. She'd already known of the Morphogenic Engine, but she'd never actually seen it. She didn't have the security clearance to gain access to the lower level of the asylum. So, why was today an exception to that? Why, all of a sudden, was she being treated like a special snowflake? Something wasn't adding up. Kasha skeptically looked Jeremy over, slight suspicion in her brown eyes. "Why? I'm not a Murkoff scientist, Mr. Blaire. I don't have any business down there."

He pushed himself away from his desk, holding a finger up. "Ah, but you see, that's where you're wrong." He started, beginning to aimlessly pace. "As a psychologist, I think it's important for you to study the effects of the Morphogenic Engine. That way, you'll have first hand knowledge of exactly what "side effects" your patients are experiencing as a result of being exposed to the engine. So, today, you'll be joining the team down there merely to observe our operation."

Something about this didn't feel right. "Am I going alone, or will the other employees from my department be joining me?"

"Nope. It's all you today, bucko. The other therapists here aren't... Ready for the exposure, so to speak." He grinned to himself, his pacing ceasing as he stopped to stand in front of Kasha.

Kasha wasn't getting a good feeling about this. But, honestly, she really didn't have much of a choice. They would probably kill her, or something worse, if she didn't comply with her rather unusual orders of visiting the engine. If there was anything that Kasha had learned while being employed at Mount Massive, it was to never trust the words of Jeremy Blaire. Or any executives, for that matter. Especially that Rick Trager guy, Jeremy's little "buddy." That guy was... Unique, to say the least. Kasha sighed, and shrugged. "I suppose I don't have much of a choice, then. When do I leave to go down there?"

"You're right, you don't have a choice." He stated confidently, a small smirk on his face. "And, it'd be best if you left immediately. I've got some guys waiting for you by the elevator down the hall. They'll give you security clearance and escort you. We don't need you touching anything that shouldn't be getting touched, now do we?"

Kasha rolled her eyes once again, and stood up. Jeremy held his hand out to shake her hand, but Kasha ignored the gesture entirely and advanced toward his office door to leave. "I guess I'll get going, then. Hopefully, I won't get turned into some fucked up lizard thing by those doctors." She said as she left the room, shutting the door behind her.

She proceeded to the elevator, where two scientists waited for her, and began her descent down into the depths of Murkoff's hell. Little did she know, however, that she was likely guaranteeing her inperpetuity within the asylum by witnessing Murkoff's true secrets.

It didn't take long.

Soon enough, Kasha found herself walking through a facility that seemed to drastically differ from the asylum above. This environment was foreign to her. The walls around her almost resembled ice, being white in color but completely jagged in texture. Wait, was it ice? She honestly couldn't tell. The floor beneath her feet was well polished, and her heels clacked and echoed prominently with each step that she took. Kasha couldn't help but notice the abundance of security guards down here. They'd been posted at nearly every single door.

As Kasha made her way through the rather pristine, professional facility, she could overhear some scientists speaking about their wives.

"Yeah, I have a wife."

"When was the last time that you saw her? I haven't seen mine in three weeks."

"Three weeks? Oh, that's nothing. I don't even remember the last time I saw my wife. I haven't even spoken to her in... Oh, god. I can't even remember."

Kasha shook her head and sighed softly as she overheard the conversation, silently hating Murkoff for their disregard of their employees personal lives. Kasha herself hadn't even spoken to her family in years. Not since she'd set foot in this place. She wasn't even allowed to email them. She knew it wasn't right... Everything in her screamed at her, and told her that the Murkoff Corporation was nothing but the embodiment of heinous corruption.

But she couldn't do anything about her gut feeling. She couldn't leave, she couldn't run... She couldn't do anything; and that, in particular, is what pissed her off the most. Feeling completely and utterly powerless, and helpless. Clearly, she wasn't the only employee here that felt this way.

"Waylon Park, employee number one four six six, report to Morphogenic Engine Monitoring immediately." The intercom overhead rang out with a demanding tone of voice as Kasha made her way through. "Poor bastard." Kasha commented, "His ass is probably in trouble."

As the two scientists escorted her into the computer room, it was then that she finally laid eyes on the Morphogenic Engine for the first time. She could see the massive, spherical hunk of machinery clearly through a wall of glass, which overlooked the spacious room that held the engine. Around the engine sat a number of small pods. Kasha walked through, aimlessly glancing at the multitude of computer screens littering every inch of wall space within the observation room. A scientist was posted at almost every computer, analyzing the brain waves of a particular patient.

"Amazing, isn't it?" One of the scientists said, interrupting Kasha's thoughts. She jumped, startled, then turned her head to the right to see a pale man dressed in the typical blue garb of the scientists standing beside her. "Oh, did I startle you? I'm terribly sorry." He commented.

Kasha shook her head, "Fucking hell, you guys pop out of no where sometimes..." She replied, bringing her attention back to looking curiously at the engine. "That's... That's a complex piece of machinery right there. But what does it do?" She questioned, silently wondering why a mental health institution would need something so complex.

The scientist grinned. "That, m'lady, is what you're going to be learning today. Pay attention. We'll be bringing a patient in soon." He then left her side.

All around her, Kasha could over hear scientists and doctors commentating and talking about the upcoming patient's brain waves. And not only that, but... the patient's dreams? They'd been speaking of the imagery in their brain as well. Kasha tried to listen further...

"Let's see... The log has the first two as guided dreams. Classified as childhood, sexual, and with reptile imagery."

Kasha heard one of the scientists say, studiously examining some paperwork. What the fuck? Sexual reptile imagery? Now, that was quite a combination of words...

Shortly afterward, Kasha heard the door of the monitoring room open behind her. A skinny, pale, blonde-haired man walked past Kasha in quite a hurry. He'd nearly bumped into her, actually. She had to move out of the way for him.

"Ah, Park. You're cutting it close, next patient's incoming and Arterial Spin's still dark. We need you at the front terminal." One of the men said, likely to the blonde man that had just walked in.

As the blonde guy, "Park", sat down at his terminal, the scientist next to him shook his head. "Jesus, Park! You were 15 seconds away from getting fired! We need you to de-bug the system for us..." The scientist seemed to get distracted, looking up from his paperwork and out into the engine room. Kasha approached both this "Park" guy and the scientist, curiously observing the scene.

What she saw within those next couple of moments deeply concerned her.

She saw a man, violently fighting for his life against the restraints of three men. He thrashed against them viciously as the three of them pulled the patient toward one of the many pods surrounding the Morphogenic Engine.

"Ah, for fuck's sake... They've got Gluskin out of his cell. Park, the Functional Imaging interface isn't talking to the ASL. We've got a patient moments away from integration, and we're blind inside his head!" The scientist barked, to which Waylon scooted his chair in and began typing on the computer in front of him.

Kasha raised an eyebrow. "Gluskin?" She thought to herself, standing behind Waylon, her arms folded in front of her. "Oh, shit. That's my patient." Something told her that this was going to be getting interesting rather quickly... She looked on at the patient beyond the glass, however. She felt bad for the poor guy, honestly. After what she'd read on his file, aside from the horrible crimes that he'd committed, his past wasn't a happy one. Now, here he was, being forced against his will into doing god only knew what.

"I could call in to the chamber and ask them to delay, if you'd like...?" One of the other scientists said, to which the one barking orders to Waylon responded with, "No. I don't need another performance evaluation. Mr. Park here is going to have us up and running before we even know it. Right, Mr. Park?" Waylon was selectively silent. He continued typing on his computer, merely trying to do his job.

"Uh, Steve...? fMRI is still dark."

"You're doubting our friend Mr. Waylon Park? Which I consider more than unkind to his programming skill and considerable dedication to the Murkoff corporation."

Kasha had to swallow the vomit ascending up her esophagus. God, ew. She was beginning to feel sincerely sorry for this Waylon Park fellow. He hadn't spoken a single word since his arrival, but this scientist was seriously kissing his ass. It was kind of... Creepy, honestly.

Kasha could then begin to hear Gluskin's horrified yelling as he thrashed against the restraints of the men, who had still been trying to detain him and hook him up into the pod.

"I KNEW IT WAS COMING, YOU FILTHY FUCKING MACHINES! You... You FUCKING MACHINES! No! No, not again! No! NO! Jack-booted FUCKS! I know what you've been doing to me! I KNOW what you've been- HELP! Help me! Help me, they're going to rape me! Rape! RAPE!" Gluskin shrieked, fighting against the men, until finally breaking free from their grasp. He then ran up to the glass of the monitoring room, completely stark naked.

Kasha jumped when he smacked against the glass with an unexpected thud, but she looked on at him sympathetically. "Nobody deserves this." She muttered to herself. "Nobody."

"HELP ME! Don't let them do this! Don't let them!" He yelled, banging on the glass frantically. Kasha stepped closer. "You!" He shouted, looking at Waylon, then at Kasha. "I know you can stop this! You have to help me! You have to-" One of the men then grabbed Gluskin from behind, dragging him away from the window.

Waylon, startled, had literally jumped up from his seat and backed away. He'd bumped into Kasha as a result. Kasha gave Waylon a rather observant look, but Waylon gave no attention to her. His attention was more focused on the security guard that had just grabbed him, saying, "HEY! Calm yourself! This is a high security-"

"It's all right, agent. Mr. Park was just surprised. I'm sure he's still calm, eager, and ready to finish his work. Take your seat." The scientist motioned to the chair, to which Waylon quickly took his seat again. "Quickly, Mr. Park! A head will need to roll if per-fusion monitoring isn't active when they put Gluskin in the engine. Five seconds. Four... Three..."

Kasha stepped closer, curiously glancing at Waylon's computer screen over his shoulder. Her eyes widened when she saw Gluskin's face pop up on the screen, a plethora of tubes running out of his mouth, nose, and essentially every other hole in his body. She shook her head, sincerely hating what she saw. What she was witnessing was inhumane, and unethical. To say the least.

But what she saw next only furthered her disgust. She watched as Gluskin continued to move against the tubing, but slowly, his movements ceased as the sedatives were pumped through his body. He quickly fell into a deep sleep, and integrated with the Morphogenic Engine's systems. As his head dropped, the skin on his face began to deteriorate and rip apart in small patches, primarily on the right side of his face.

Kasha looked away, shaking her head in disgust. She turned around and faced the scientist who had been speaking with Waylon. "I have a question. What, exactly, does this do to benefit the patient's progression towards a healthy mental state?" Her voice was heavy with subdued anger.

The scientist chuckled. "Help? Oh, no. This operation does not help the patients, ma'am. It helps Murkoff. What you're witnessing is Project Walrider, and the depth of it's magnitude is far greater than you can even comprehend."

Kasha stepped away from him, a scowl on her face. "I was brought down her today to "learn" about the effects of this engine on my patients, to "better understand" their mental trauma. Is THAT the side effect? Their skin practically melting off of their fucking face?" She barked, pointing to Waylon's computer screen. "Physical deterioration? For what, financial gain? You people make me fucking sick. That patient needs therapy. Not to be hooked up to some fucked up machine!" She hissed, challengingly glaring at the scientist in front of her.

He shook his head, grinning. "You really are an idiot, aren't you? Such a shame... I was looking forward to being in the company of a woman. But it appears that you're going to be a problem to the Murkoff Corporation..." Two security guards came up from behind Kasha, grabbing her by her arms. Immediately, she thrashed against them. "Fuck you! Get your hands off of me!" She spat, to which the two guards began dragging her away.

"Thank you for your services, ma'am. But Murkoff won't be needing them any longer." The scientist concluded, turning his back on Kasha.

Waylon turned around, watching the scene curiously. "Is that what happens when somebody speaks their fucking mind around here?" He thought to himself, shaking his head. "That's exactly the reason why I keep my mouth shut around here... Poor girl."

The two guards dragged Kasha out of the monitoring room, while she kicked at their legs with her own. "What the fuck is this place, then?! What is this shit?!" She questioned, to which the security guard to her right armed himself with a taser. "If you don't comply with our restraints, ma'am, we'll be forced to detain you."

"Oh, cut the crap. You're going to "detain" me anyway, aren't you? Jeremy Blaire is probably going to order you to kill me." She hissed, glaring at the guard. After what she'd just seen, she now knew that the Murkoff Corporation was something far more vile than she'd originally imagined. She now knew that she wasn't going to leave this facility alive.

The guards brought Kasha into a secluded room at the end of one of the few hallways in the underground facility. They tossed her in carelessly, "Mr. Blaire will be here to discuss the terms of your employment any moment now. Behave." And with that, they shut the room's door and locked it behind them.

Kasha landed on the hard floor with a painful thud. She scrambled up and looked at her surroundings the instant they shut the door, looking for an escape route. All around her, there had been nothing but water heaters. Water heaters, and a shit ton of pipes all over the walls. No vents, and obviously no windows. Fuck. She wasn't getting out of this.

She sat on the floor with her back against the wall, sitting opposite of the door. She glared the door, waiting for Jeremy Blaire to walk in and potentially kill her on the spot. For all she knew, he could do that. She didn't know what to expect from these people anymore. Soon enough, the door opened. A couple of security guards entered the room first, followed by Jeremy Blaire. Kasha didn't move a muscle.

Jeremy knelt down on the floor in front of her, smirking. "Well, Kasha, it'd be too easy if I were to simply just scold you and tell you how disappointed I am. So, I've come up with another punishment for you. I think you'll like it." He said, standing up again. "Get the hell away from me." Kasha growled, her eyes never leaving Blaire. "What I just saw in there was no where near humane. I was under the impression that this facility aimed to treat mental illnesses, not accelerate them!" She yelled, her hands clenching into fists.

Jeremy laughed, "And to think, I thought that you'd be ready to witness the truth. I guess not. You being naive isn't my fault, Kasha. So... I think it's time that we discuss your future here at the facility." The security guards armed themselves, which made Kasha nervous. Blaire continued, "I'm sure you've noticed that we don't really... Allow female employees down into the monitoring room. Do you know why that is?"

Kasha raised an eyebrow. "... No? Oh, enlighten me. This sounds promising."

"Well, let's just say that the female reproductive system doesn't exactly cooperate with the Morphogenic Engine. Every single woman that's stepped into that monitoring room has either died on the spot, or died shortly after coming into contact with the engine... Except for you."

Kasha's face twisted into a disgusted scowl. "Did you... Did you send me down here today as an experiment? To see if I'd face complications like the other women? How fucking dare you-"

"And now," Jeremy interjected, his voice raising. "We'd like to see why you weren't affected. You'll still be useful to Murkoff after all, Kasha. As a patient."

The moment Kasha heard those words, her heart dropped into her stomach. God, no. Fuck. Anxiety dispersed throughout her body. She shook her head, "Jeremy, you don't have to do this-"

"As a matter of fact, I do. Boys, let's give Kasha a little... Anesthetic, shall we?" He said with a grin, watching as the security guards gathered around Kasha. Kasha began kicking at their legs, "NO! Fuck no! You can't do this!" She roared, to which a guard responded by punching her squarely in the face with brute force.

Kasha's world went dark, and she fell unconscious.


	3. The Devil's Due

Everything felt... Obscured. Kasha began to regain consciousness, but she didn't feel quite right; something was off. She could hear the muffled screams of tortured souls that sounded like they were miles away, and the air enveloping her body was bitterly cold; it felt like she had been locked inside of a freezer. She shifted, but discovered something protesting against her movements, restraining her in her place.

Kasha's eyelids opened slowly, but quickly squinted against the harsh light of a vast array of aligned TV screens before her. "What...? What is this?" She grumbled, clenching her hands into fists and attempting to get up from the chair that she'd been seated in. It was then, however, that she discovered that she couldn't leave. She'd been restrained to the chair by her wrists and ankles. She tugged against her restraints, frustration boiling up within her.

Her eyes finally adjusted to the light of the TV screens. She opened her eyes, and began frantically looking at her surroundings; it looked like she was in some sort of attic. It was a small, confined room, and it almost felt like a containment cell. The wooden floor beneath her feet looked almost aged, but the wooden walls looked even older. The only thing contained within the small room was her, the chair she was in, and about twelve symmetrically aligned television screens in front of her. A plethora of wiring poured out from behind the mess of television screens, and they all seemed to lead to some kind of mechanism behind Kasha. She couldn't see it, however. The screens had been playing some kind of... Imagery. It was distorted, and Kasha couldn't actually describe it, but... She didn't like it. She heard a distinct static in the back of her head, and it was making her skin crawl. 

Is this what her patients had been feeling?

Is this what had driven them into madness?

"You're awake, are you? Good. I'm eager to begin my work." Came a male voice from somewhere behind Kasha, his voice echoing throughout the mostly empty room. Where was she?

"What is this place? Where am I?" Kasha demanded, her eyes narrowing. The man, dressed in the blue garb of those damned scientists, made his way around the chair to stand in front of Kasha. He was a pale man, and his face looked slightly aged with the occasional wrinkle. He looked to be in his late 30's.

"That's not relevant. What is relevant, however, is figuring you out." He looked Kasha up and down with a suppressed hunger in his eyes, licking his lips. He then wandered back over to wherever he'd previously been, collecting some tools.

Kasha shuddered. God, this man was probably going to rape her or something. Why her? Why?

He walked back around to face Kasha, holding an almost alien looking contraption in his arms. It had already been attached to whatever mechanism was behind Kasha, but the other end of it looked... Concerning. It held a multitude of segregated wires, all of which were tipped with a single suction cup. He then approached Kasha, which prompted her to press herself against the back of the chair in a futile attempt to get away from him. God, no. She didn't want this. "What is that? What in the hell are you doing to me?" She hissed, anger flaring up in her eyes. But beneath that anger, there was certainly fear.

"Relax... This will only take a moment. I just need to..." He trailed off, his hands gliding up Kasha's thighs. Kasha had still been wearing her regular work uniform, but it was a bit now littered with the occasional rip and tear, exposing her ivory skin beneath in small patches. Additionally, her ebony hair was now released from it's usual bun; it tumbled down over her breasts in a frayed, beaten mess. Apparently, the men that had delivered her here weren't exactly gentle with her. His hands slithered over her thighs through the fabric of her now weathered pencil skirt, until they finally found the lower rim of her white, button up shirt. He tugged at the buttons, rather aggressively tearing her shirt open, revealing her bare abdomen to him.

Kasha was beginning to panic. Her chest rose and fell rapidly with her accelerated breathing as she looked at the man with a perplexed gaze. "No. NO! Do not fucking touch me, you disgusting piece of shit!" She roared, yanking against her restraints. She exuded an angry, violent exterior... But, in truth, internally, she was absolutely fucking terrified.

The man stuck the suction cups on the soft flesh of her abdomen, directly aligning them with her ovaries. "Your aggression is... Quite alluring." He commented, his hand trailing down her right arm slowly. "But there's much work to be done. I need to study your... Reproductive organs. They need to be tested."

"For what?! God, all of you people are fucking insane!" She yelled, on the verge of tears as she felt the onset of a full blown panic attack begin to well up inside of her.

Without another word, the man left Kasha and retreated to the mechanism behind her once everything had been hooked up properly. Then, he initiated the test. Kasha didn't have a moment to think; all at once, she felt an overwhelming amount of raw agony course throughout her entire body. Every inch of her, every cell in her body, felt like it had exploded. She jerked her head back and cried out in tormented pain as pulses of electricity coursed directly into her ovaries.

The man behind her, operating everything, had been studying the electric currents as the shocks were being administered to Kasha. Once that shock subsided, he ignited another dose of electricity with the press of a button.

Kasha, again, let out a horrible scream.

At this point, death would be mercy. Silently, she hoped that one of these shocks would be the death of her.

"Stop! STOP! For fuck's sake, that's enough!" She yelled, leaning forward in her chair, her hair falling over her face in a disheveled mess. She struggled to catch her breath, her body violently shaking both from sheer panic and the after effects of the electric shocks. Suddenly, a new male voice sounded from somewhere behind her.

"Having fun, buddy? Man, you're doing quite a number on her... And not in the good way." He said with a chuckle, his voice sounding progressively closer and closer as he approached the chair. His voice was... Oddly charming; and not only charming, but disturbingly familiar.

"R-Rick! I wasn't expecting you to stop by. Did Mr. Blaire send you?" The scientist stuttered, his voice sounding like he'd just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar by his mother.

"Rick... Trager?" Kasha thought to herself, slightly surprised. When she used to work at the asylum... God, it was still weird for her to think of it in past tense... She'd encountered Richard Trager a hand full of times. Usually, he hung around with Jeremy Blaire. The two of them had been best buddies, allegedly. Evidently, they'd even gone out golfing a couple of times. In Kasha's eyes, Trager was no better or worse than Blaire. She wanted to bury them both in a shallow grave together.

Fucking piece of shit executive scumbag. "Hey there, girly. Man, you look like a mess! A little bathing wouldn't kill ya." Trager's voice interrupted Kasha's thoughts, the man suddenly standing in front of her. He was a rather tall, lean fellow; his physique reminded Kasha of a scare crow, honestly. He had long, gray hair, which had been tied into a low ponytail to rest along his back. He wore a long, white lab coat, and sported some well tailored slacks. On his face, he'd been wearing a pair of glasses; additionally, he proudly wore his Murkoff employee card around his neck.

"Screw you, Rick. You know... A good fuck in the ass from Jeremy wouldn't kill you. You'd probably love that." She spat, mocking his choice of words.

Rick moved to stand directly in front of Kasha. He bent down to meet her eye to eye, squinting. "You've got some balls, I'll give ya that. Are you aware that you're the only woman on this facility right now? Man, you must feel real special." Suddenly, Trager's hand connected with Kasha's face powerfully, making her head jerk to the side. "And special people get special attention, am I right? Hey Andy, give her another shock!" Trager ordered, almost amused by Kasha's torment. He was treating this like a game.

The scientist, Andy (or rather Andrew), pushed the button to dispense another shock. Kasha's back arched against the chair, crying out in agony as the ripple of electricity coursed through her ovaries for the third time now.

"Why... The fuck... Are you people doing this?" She huffed, attempting to catch her breath. "Is it about the Morphogenic Engine? You're trying to figure out why it doesn't effect me, aren't you? Why it hasn't killed me like it has the other women?"

Rick clapped enthusiastically, "BINGO! Thaaat's right, hon! Y'know, Jer did send me up here to check on the progress and, I hate to say it, but I'm a busy guy. I've got things to do, y'know. So as much as I'd love to stand here and watch you scream bloody murder... I'm gonna need those test results, Andy."

Andrew nodded, and tore the printed pieces of paper away from the machine, handing them to Trager. Trager looked them over for a moment, putting his hand to his chin thoughtfully. "Hm... Well, that's new." He commented, beginning to walk towards the door. "Administer something to knock her out for a while, Andy. We've gotta run some more tests on this chick." Trager said, as he walked out of the room. "Oh, and keep her isolated! Under the big man's orders, she's gotta be secluded from the rest of the facility."

Andrew grabbed a syringe filled with a powerful tranquilizer, and approached Kasha. Kasha, her body now completely exhausted, slowly turned her head to look at the scientist. "I sincerely hope that you burn in hell, you piece of shit." She growled, her voice now dry and hoarse from the constant screaming. Andrew didn't respond, he simply administered the tranquilizer.

And, once again, Kasha's world went black.

~/~

Four hours later...

"Ugh... Fuck, where am I now?" Kasha thought, consciousness returning to her once again. Hopefully, this would be the last time that she'd get knocked unconscious by someone here.

It was quiet. Horrendously quiet; and, much like the previous room that she'd been in, cold.

She opened her eyes and immediately looked around. This time, she'd been laying down flat on her back against a bed, and her arms and legs had been spread out and restrained at each bed post. Her white shirt had been taken off completely, and was likely carelessly discarded on the floor elsewhere. She'd been laying on the bed in nothing but her underwear, which sparked suspicions. She'd also, predictably, been hooked up to two machines. That same tool used in the previous room was being used on her again, the familiar suction cups sticking to her abdomen. The second piece of equipment hooked up to her were two IV's, one in each wrist. What had they been doing to her?

"Hopefully they didn't... Touch me... While I was out." She said to herself, looking for another human being in the room with her. She found no one. She seemed to be in another room that could easily double as an attic, where both the floor and walls were made entirely of wooden paneling. This room, however, had windows. All Kasha could see was the blackness of the night sky through each of them.

"Okay... Pull it together, Kasha. You need to get yourself out of here." She looked to her right to see a scalpel placed on a table, which had been directly next to the bed. "Maybe... If I can just-" Kasha began yanking forcefully to the right, trying to yank the bed over on it's side. Eventually, her efforts proved successful. After pushing and thrusting her weight hard enough, she'd managed to tip the bed over on to it's side with a loud thud. Well, shit. That was going to attract attention. The table next to it fell over with a hasty crash, causing the scalpel to fall on the floor. Kasha eyed the scalpel with determination; she was going to escape.

She frantically twisted and contorted her right hand, which had been the one closest to the scalpel, and tried to grab it. The scalpel barely touched her fingertips. She wiggled her fingers around, trying to somehow hit it closer to her hand, but it seemed impossible. However, that didn't stop her from trying.

After a while, she'd finally managed to grab the scalpel; slowly and awkwardly sawing the restraints off of her right wrist which the same hand. After that, she was home free from there. She cut off the rest of her restraints, and finally tasted her first sip of freedom. Firstly, she detached herself from the IV's. Then, the suction cups. She grabbed her now thoroughly stained and filthy button up shirt off of the floor and threw it on, buttoning it up all the way. She scrambled up to her feet and looked around for her pencil skirt, which seemed to be missing. "Great. So I guess I'll just be running around in nothing but a shitty shirt and my underwear. Fabulous." She commented, rolling her eyes and looking around the room for some weapons.

She silently wondered why no one had come to investigate all of the noise yet. That was... Peculiar.

Barefoot, Kasha's feet clapped against the wooden planks as she searched the room for supplies before heading outside. She didn't know what to expect. More than likely, she would be getting stopped by guards. So, she would need to sneak past everyone. Either that, or kill them. Maybe both.

She didn't manage to find any weapons, but she did find a document on another nearby table. She opened it curiously, and gave it a read:

~/~

"Case Number: 831

Patient: Kasha Müller

Consultation Dated: 2013. 9. 17

Initial Date of Patient Consult: 2013. 9. 17

Patient Age: 28

Gender: Female

Observing Physician: Dr. Garrett Snow

Therapy Status: Shock therapy administered to her reproductive organs has proven to be unsuccessful. Using a variety of additional testing methods, it was concluded through a basic hormone assessment that the cause of her immunity to the effects of the Morphogenic Engine is a direct result of ovarian infertility. Further tests will need to be conducted to additionally solidify this diagnosis. 

Diagnostics: Appears to be highly aware, despite the amount of sedatives and tranquilizing properties I've administered into her body. Even while unconscious, subject remains difficult. While conscious, she will not comply. Patient must be sedated at all times. Trans-orbital lobotomy is highly recommended to make any legitimate progress on this patient.

Interview Notes: No interview has been conducted, and no interview is planned. No psychiatric evaluation needed."

~/~

Kasha's eyes widened, and her free hand lifted to cover her wine red lips. "Infertility...? I'm infertile? THAT'S why I haven't died?" She muttered to herself, the diagnosis being a shock to her. How had she lived her entire twenty seven years of existence without knowing that? Well, it seemed that she was never having children. Luckily, she hated children anyway. "I can't even believe that I'm looking at my own patient file right now. ME, an employee, now has a fucking patient file..." 

God, they were even thinking about giving her a lobotomy. Just so she'd be a rag doll for them to freely toy with. Ugh. Vile, filthy, disgusting human beings... Unexpectedly, an alarmingly loud bang sounded from the only door in the room. Kasha had nearly jumped out of her skin, startled by the sudden noise, and began gripping the scalpel in her hand anxiously. The viciously angry banging persisted against the door until, finally, the door succumbed to the stranger's strength. The door slammed forward and off of it's hinges, and an ominously silhouetted figure stood in the doorway.

Kasha backed up, "If you come any closer, I won't hesitate to gut you. Just a fair warning." She said, as calmly as she could. Internally, however, she was anything but calm.

"And who're you, then? Wait, are you... Are you a lady?" The husky male voice replied, slowly approaching Kasha. Kasha backed away with each step that he took toward her. Suddenly, he began running at her, and Kasha panicked. "I've been real lonely! I need you!" The man screamed as he psychotically swung his fists at her, to which Kasha had managed to back away quickly enough to avoid his blows.

Once he'd entered the room, and Kasha could finally see him in the room's light, she discovered that he'd been a patient. He was dressed in the typical attire of a patient here, and even worse, he had blood covering almost every inch of his body; and there was something... Wild in his eyes. This man was going to kill her. Kasha had no choice but to beat him to the punch.

He swung again, and ended up hitting Kasha on the side of the head this time. Kasha yelped, holding her face. Before she knew it, Kasha had her back against a wall. "Fuck. He's going to kill me. I need to..." She thought frantically, looking down at the scalpel in her hand. He pulled his fist back again for another punch, and Kasha had been too late to stop him. He punched the same side of her face again, then kneed her in the gut. Kasha had gotten the wind knocked out of her, and she uncontrollably dropped to her knees out of reflex. "No." She thought, as the same man began relentlessly kicking her repeatedly in her side, knocking her to the ground. "I'm not dying here."

Now laying on the wooden floor, she then swung her right arm, which was armed with the scalpel, and began sawing at the Achilles tendon on his left ankle. The man screamed, but Kasha quickly sawed at his right Achilles tendon as well before he could react. He fell down on his rump, scurrying away from Kasha. "You filthy WHORE! SLUT!" He slurred, scowling at Kasha. Kasha summoned the strength of instinctual survival and stood back up on her feet, limping towards him. She didn't even bother with a verbal response. She jumped on him, straddling him, and began stabbing down into his chest where his heart should be. His rib cage got in the way, of course, but that didn't stop Kasha from trying.

The surreal feeling of a blade grinding against someone's bones filled Kasha with a strange satisfaction that began to intoxicate her. She lifted the blade and plunged it into him again and again, each thrust progressively more satisfying than the last. Then, she slit his throat. She probably should have just done that in the first place, but that would have taken the fun away.

She rose to her feet, her brown eyes gazing down at the bleeding man before her; the sounds of him drowning and suffocating on his own blood filling the room with a guttural gargle. "Damn... You stained my shirt. Bastard." She spat, looking down at the new bloodstains decorating the bottom hemming of her shirt. But, she didn't have time to over think things. She needed to figure out what in the fuck was going on around here. She ran to the door, wincing as she felt the wounds all over her body pulse in pain. A nice nap and some fucking ice cream sounded like royalty right about now.

Kasha walked outside. Then, her eyes widened when she overlooked the scene before her. She'd been high above the rest of the facility, locked up in one of the asylum's two main towers. The view was amazing from this altitude; she could see everything outside and around the asylum. The cold, bitter wind of the night blew her black hair sporadically. She took a couple of steps further outside, then discovered that she'd been standing on a metal balcony. The balcony was connected to a long flight of stairs spiraling down the outer walls of the tower, which led back down into the asylum's depths.

Why had they been keeping her so secluded?

Even she, as an employee of Murkoff, had never even known that these towers held rooms within them. If her patient file was correct... They were likely keeping her secluded to give her a particular amount of attention when it came to experimentation. They needed to single her out, perhaps.

"Oh, GOD! RUN! It isn't even human anymore!" Kasha heard a male voice yell from down below, his voice merely a faint echo. Kasha curiously looked down, her hands gripping the metal railing of the balcony. She saw a security guard seemingly running for his life frantically, being chased by... Oh, god. Something that seriously wasn't even human. He was right.

The man chasing him was probably the largest human being that Kasha had ever seen in her life. He was incredibly broad and muscular, yet he seemed to still have a bit of a gut on him. He had chains wrapped around his wrists and ankles, and sported some camouflage pants on his muscular legs. He was bald, and looked like he had some sort of mouth lock against his lips, pulling his mouth permanently open to expose his snarling teeth. The beefy man let out a guttural roar, throwing chairs, boxes, anything at the poor security guard. Then, the tank of a man caught up to the guard. His prey. He grabbed him by his throat with one arm, and held him up as if the guard had weighed nothing. He then grabbed the guard's body with his other hand, and yanked his head off of his body as if he'd just plucked a weed from the ground.

Kasha had no idea what to think, or what to say. She'd never seen that man before in her... Wait. No. She had seen him. That patient's name was Chris Walker, and he was being held in the high security facility of Mount Massive. Kasha had only ever seen Walker once, and he... Had looked much different. For one thing, he looked human. He was an ex-military man, and he'd been placed here for "confidential" reasons. Now, he'd turned into this... Thing. Somehow.

"If Chris fucking Walker is loose... Something isn't right here. He was being held in high security. No one escapes from there." She muttered to herself, pacing. She could hear the distant screams of various employees and patients in the distance, and it only unsettled her further. She glanced back down into the yard, watching as a crowd of Murkoff doctors frantically fled the asylum through it's front doors. They were running to the front gates.

Unfortunately for them, however, Chris Walker had still been skulking about the vicinity. Walker let out a roar, and began making quick work of the poor bastards.

Kasha's mind was racing. "Clearly, the asylum is going to hell. But... What in the fuck happened? I don't understand. I... Fuck, I need to get out of here. I'm not letting some fucked up asshole that looks like he has a diet exclusively of steroids rip off my head like that."

She looked down at her scalpel, fully knowing that this little piece of metal was going to be one of the only things that would probably get her through this pseudo-apocalyptic bullshit alive. "Hell, maybe I should just stay up here." She said, looking back at the room. "I mean, I'd have a good vantage point. I'd be relatively safe."

Just as she spoke those words, almost on cue, a bench from the yard below came flying at the balcony with incredible force. It bent the balcony horribly upon impact and broke it off of it's hinges, sending it falling down into the yard below. Kasha, with only a second to save herself, flung herself at the nearby stairs to avoid falling to her death with the metal balcony. "Holy fuck. I... Okay, screw that plan, then." She said, struggling to catch her breath. She looked down to find the culprit of the attack, and saw the intimidating glare of Chris Walker staring tauntingly back at her.

She knew now that she had no choice.

She needed to go into the asylum, make her way through, and survive.

There was no going back now.


	4. Incarcerated

She couldn't believe how utterly chaotic the asylum had become in a matter of hours. Now, it felt like a killing ground. She'd long since abandoned the tower in which she was imprisoned, now taking to the grass surrounding the asylum to attempt to find a way within it's depths. She wanted answers. What in the hell had happened to cause such an extreme outbreak like this? This was unfathomable. Unexpectedly, Kasha felt the wind get knocked out of her lungs as her back slammed against the fence she'd been walking along, her assailant restraining her by her shoulders. Her eyes locked on to a man with a shockingly deformed face mere inches from her own--- Christ, he barely looked human anymore. What was happening here?

"M-Maybe, after I've killed ya, I'll have my way with your pretty little body!" The man, presumably a patient, stated. His voice was being distorted by a piece of his cheek crudely stretched over his mouth, being melded at the opposite side of his face.

By this time, Kasha had already slain three other patients that had attacked her just as this man was. She'd barely made it out alive all three times, but she was getting better. Her scalpel had snapped in half after she'd tried to stab a man just prior to this one in the throat, leaving her weaponless. Well, with the exception of her bare hands. Kasha scowled at the man, "Why is it that every patient that I've come into contact with tonight wants to either have sex with my corpse, or violate me in some way? Jesus, you guys must really need to get laid." Kasha remarked, a smirk on her face. She then jabbed her knee into her attacker's groin, causing him to keel over in pain. Kasha took the opportunity to kick him down to the ground, leaving him flat on his back against the soft gross of the yard. Kasha climbed on top of him and clasped his throat in her hands, pressing all of her weight down into where his wind pipes should be. Shortly afterward, the man below her fell limp; devoid of life.

She stood up, looking around at her surroundings; in every direction for as far as her eyes could see, the yard was blanketing with an obscuring fog that was making her progressively nervous. She had no idea what to expect, and the fog wasn't particularly helping her situation. She took a deep breath, and released a long exhale; if she kept her wits about her, she knew she'd be fine. She just needed to focus. The air was bitterly cold, and the fact that she'd barely been clothed didn't exactly help her comfort. The flesh of her bare legs had been festering with goosebumps, her body shaking in an attempt to warm itself up. At least she had the sleeves of her white shirt to keep her upper body warm. She looked up at the tower that was only just recently her prison, silently wishing that she could have stayed in that room.

Kasha cautiously trekked onward, keeping her eyes peeled for any other human beings. She ended up stumbling upon a set of basketball courts, which had been occupied by a number of patients. Luckily for her, they all seemed thoroughly distracted by their own activities. One of them had been tossing a decapitated head through the basketball hoop repeatedly; he happened to miss merely once, but it was enough to send him over the edge and into a rage. He screamed, and kicked the head with enough force for it to nearly explode upon the impact of hitting the brick wall behind the basketball hoop.

Kasha tip-toed her way up to the fence that looked directly into the basketball court; two rather broad male figures that seemed to mirror each other identically began to come into Kasha's line of sight, both figures being armed with what looked like machetes. As they approached her, their walk surprisingly calm and collected, their silhouettes slowly became more visible. To Kasha's surprise, they were both completely nude.

"Do you see that, brother?"

"I do."

"A female."

"I would like to kill her."

"As would I."

"You can have her liver."

"No, I'll have her uterus."

"So selfish of you..."

The two bantered at each other, their voices just as calm and collected as their walk. Finally, Kasha could clearly see them; they seemed to be identical twins. Something about them... Gave Kasha a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Shall we give her a head start, brother?"

"I think it would only be fair."

"... She looks quite cold."

"She'll be warmer inside of our bellies."

... Yeah, it was time to go.

Kasha quickly turned on her heel and walked away as quickly as she could, sincerely hoping that she'd never have to cross paths with those twins ever again. She ran back across the open yard, trying to not be spotted by anyone.

However, anxiety burned through her once she began hearing footsteps behind her.

She turned around, her breath heaving, to see the familiar silhouettes of The Twins following her through the thick fog.

"Fuck!" She cursed under her breath, continuing to run ahead. Maybe, if she ran back up the stairs of that tower from before, she'd be able to both get a vantage point against The Twins and disappear from their sight. She would need to use this fog to her advantage if she wanted to stay alive our here.

She looked over her shoulder to check up on them, but much to her surprise, their silhouettes had disappeared, which both alarmed and relieved Kasha. This was a two on one match... And those two most likely knew this yard better than she did.

It was like two cheetahs hunting a poor, defenseless zebra.

Kasha had finally made it back to the tower. She quickly zipped behind it, planting her back against it's brick wall. She was nearly hyperventilating as panic began to course through her. But, she needed to stay strong, and be brave. She wasn't going to survive this if she allowed panic to consume her. She slid down the brick wall, planting herself down on the grassy ground. Her legs needed a break. Hell, her entire body needed a break.

The first man that had attacked her up in the tower had probably broken at least one rib, not to mention the fact that she was getting increasingly worried about her throbbing jaw, which could have been cracked or fractured for all she knew. She probably had a black eye or something by now. She didn't know, she had decidedly chosen to not look in a mirror.

Without an ounce of warning, the gleam of a blade could be seen on her right side from the peripheral of Kasha's vision. She had no time to react before the same gleam could simultaneously be seen from her left side as well and, in that instant, both blades swung violently at Kasha, badly slicing both of her arms at once, ripping through the fabric of her shirt. Kasha yelled out in pain, quickly standing on her feet and pushing herself forward without even giving a glance to her attackers. She already knew who they were, and it was foolish of her to even stop running in the first place.

The two cuts on her arms bled profusely, the blood trickling down and dripping off of her fingertips. The adrenaline pumping through her veins was the only thing keeping her going, and the only chemical that kept her from passing out. The Twins, obviously, were silent killers, and they seemed to take great pleasure in ganging up on their prey. Kasha needed to get into the asylum. She couldn't be outside anymore. It wasn't safe. She couldn't stand not being able to see what was in front of her. Fuck, she wished that she could just kill these twins as easily as she could with the other patients. She hated feeling like a useless, vulnerable, and above all weak little lamb.

There came a point where she couldn't run anymore. Her legs were faltering beneath her, and her body was about ready to give out on her. The next window or door she saw... She fully intended on jumping through it. The grass seemed to decline down from a hill, and it seemed to be leading her towards the lower section of the asylum. Toward the sewers. Just then, to her left, she discovered a rather abandoned looking building with what looked like easily breakable windows. She knew that it probably wasn't a smart idea to make too much noise, but she was desperate to get inside somewhere to avoid being killed by these twins.

She looked around first, making sure that nobody was watching her, namely The Twins, before grabbing a discarded brick from the ground and throwing it into the window. The brick flew through the window with an incredibly loud crash, shattering glass all over the floor inside of the building.

"Fuck, I know I'm gonna regret that later." Kasha hissed to herself, silently cursing herself for her reckless stupidity. She carefully climbed through the window, being mindful of her bare legs against the broken glass, but quickly discovered that the window had actually been quite elevated in comparison the the floor inside of the building. So, Kasha ended up needing to hold on the the window's edges for support, which had been littered with bits of protruding broken glass. Kasha winced as she felt the broken glass puncture her hands, but tried not to make any more noise. She dropped down into the nearly pitch black room with a soft thud.

She immediately crouched down, hoping that her eyes would adjust to the darkness soon. She snuck her way underneath a table, staying still while she listened intently to her surroundings. She closed her eyes, focusing her senses.

… She could hear footsteps. They were relatively close by, and it made her feel incredibly uncomfortable. They were slow, calm footsteps. It seemed like they were coming over to inspect the sound of the crash.

"You don't need to hide from me, darling." A... Slightly familiar voice said, his voice charming and calm. "I know you're here. You don't need to be alone anymore..." He continued, wandering around the room. Kasha could hear his footsteps growing fainter. He was walking away from her. But, something was bothering her. That voice... It truly did sound familiar; but she couldn't quite place who it belonged to. 

She slowly crept her way out from underneath the table, her eyes being adjusted to the dark now. She'd been inside of a rather spacious room, and it held a number of symmetrically aligned sewing machines. Then, Kasha knew where she was. "Ah, this place." She thought to herself, crawling her way over to a new hiding place. "This is where we used to send patients when we needed them to cope with their illnesses. We used to make them sew to distract them." It made her feel better to actually know where she was now.

"Come now, darling... Don't be like this. I could fill that emptiness inside you." The male voice continued, his footsteps returning to Kasha's side of the room.

Great, another bat shit insane patient. Kasha looked around for something to defend herself with... She found a small pile of debris to her left. She picked up a small rock, then peeked out from underneath the sewing table to throw the bit of debris somewhere else in the room. It landed with a loud thud on the opposite side of the room.

Kasha smirked. Hopefully, that would distract him.

It seemed to work. His footsteps faded in the distance, and Kasha took the opportunity to leave her hiding place and advance further into the room. With luck, if she played this out well, she would be able to sneak her way past this man without him even seeing her.

"When I was a boy, my mother often said to me... Get married son and see, how happy you will be..." The man began singing, his voice as haunting as ever. It sounded like something straight out of a horror movie, honestly. "I have looked all over... But no girlie can I find, who seems to be just like the little girl I have in mind.." He continued, the sound of his singing beginning to send chills down Kasha's spine. Regardless, she proceeded onward. She started hoping that he would sing more, because at least then, the sound of his voice would give her a constant idea of where he was at.

Finally, Kasha could see some light faintly showing through a thin sheet of fabric that seemed to be pinned up like a curtain at the front of the spacious room, shielding something from view. Light meant vulnerability, however. It was probably a good idea to stick to the shadows, but there wasn't any other way to go. She looked around, then took her chances and progressed toward the source of the light.

What she then discovered behind the fabric barrier was probably the single most horrendous thing that she had ever seen in her life.

It was a horribly mutilated body, a male body, that had been modified to replicate the scene of a bloody birth. The body had been manufactured with hunks of flesh over it's chest to replicate female breasts, while the belly of the body had been stuffed with... Oh, god. Kasha stepped closer to the scene, cringing. The body had been stuffed with the decapitated head of the second body standing beside the "woman" body to replicate the bloated belly of a pregnant woman, holding it's hand while it made the "delivery." Kasha could even distinctly see the eyeball of the decapitated head peeking through one of the open seams of the the stitches. A copious amount of blood had been splattered and sprayed from the groin of the "woman" body; insects buzzed around the two corpses, feeding on their rotting flesh.

Whoever the hell this man was, he was by far the most clinically insane individual that Kasha had ever come across and, considering her two years of employment as a therapist within Mount Massive asylum, that was saying something.

"I will have to look around... Until the right one I have found..." The man's voice sang, luckily from what sounded like the next room over. God, this entire scenario was giving Kasha a level of anxiety that she wasn't even aware she could achieve.

"I want a girl, just like the girl, that married dear old dad..."

Kasha needed to get out of here. She crept into the hallway, being mindful of her incredibly psychopathic friend somewhere around here. If she even moved something, it would likely mean her death. She needed to be careful. Every single second mattered.

"It gets awfully lonely down here, you know. I know you're still skulking about somewhere... Show me your face, darling. I only want to love you." His voice echoed through the halls, almost taunting Kasha.

"Good. Keep flapping your fucking gums, asshole. You're saving my life." She thought to herself, skirting her way into another room.

Maybe staying outside would have been a better idea, after all...

The man remained silent for quite a while, and it was beginning to make Kasha nervous. She felt blind now. She tip-toed her way through each room, wondering where she could possibly escape from this entire facility. For fuck's sake, she definitely preferred The Twins over this asshole. This guy made them look sane. As Kasha's thoughts raced, she became distracted. Without noticing, her foot harshly kicked a can on the ground, causing it to skid across the floor. Fuck. Immediately, she panicked and made a run for it.

But that was the one thing that she should never have done.

She darted through the halls, hoping to God that she would go unnoticed, but it seemed that her hopes would go empty tonight... As soon as she made a sharp right turn down another hallway, she found herself running into the back a man that stood at roughly six feet, his shoulders broad and his physique being quite widely built. Kasha gasped and panicked, backing away from him frantically.

He turned around to meet her eyes, and it was then that Kasha had finally recognized him.

Eddie Gluskin.

Although, his appearance had changed quite drastically since the last time that she'd spoken with him in her office. Eddie Gluskin was the only patient that Kasha had ever truly sympathized with during her time working here. But, now... She wasn't sure if she should be feeling sympathy for him after what she'd just seen back there.

Eddie's face had become quite disfigured after his exposure to the Morphogenic Engine. Kasha remembered watching it all happen on Waylon Park's computer screen... God, that almost felt like a distant dream now; normal life before the outbreak. The sclera of his right eye had become completely blood shot, and his left eye looked partially bloodshot as well; his crystal blue eyes greatly contrasted to the crimson blood surrounding his iris. Red rashes littered his face, the rashes being particularly worse on the right side of his face, even going so far as to slightly deform both his right ear and the corner of his mouth. Eddie had even gone so far as to make himself a little costume – One that resembled the outfit of a Groom; a blue vest with a white shirt beneath it, the shirt's sleeves being rolled up to his elbows. He'd also been sporting a pair of finger-less gloves over his hands. He'd even seemed to tailor himself a pair of pants that matched the shade of blue that his vest had been.

Once Eddie laid eyes on Kasha, something sparked in those eyes. It was something predatory. But most of all, it was something utterly terrifying. Kasha, still, was in complete disbelief that Eddie Gluskin had become... This.

"I remember your face..." He began, approaching her. "Let me fill you up. You don't need to be alone anymore, darling." The sound of his voice had become slightly muffled due to the deformity of his mouth from the rashes.

Kasha shook her head. "Holy fuck, Eddie. What happened to you?" She sounded genuinely shocked. But pure terror had frozen her to the spot. Her legs weren't working.

"You – The therapist." He said, selectively disregarding her statement, seeming to actually remember her. Excitement and anticipation began to boil up within Eddie in it's rawest form. It had been... So long. So long since he'd laid a hand on a real woman. His thoughts began to cloud with all of the joyous things that he was planning to do to her for the ceremony... After he'd made an honest woman of her, of course. "A real woman... Such a delicacy." He thought to himself as he now stood in front of her, his knife clutched in his right hand.

"MOVE, YOU IDIOT! God damn it, Kasha, MOVE!" Kasha internally screamed at herself, until finally, she willed herself to squirm away from him only moments before he was about to plunge his blade into her gut.

Kasha pushed herself down the hallway away from him, trying not to trip on anything along the way. Eddie chased after her, armed with his knife. "No, NO! Let me LOVE you, darling!" He called out after her, sounding genuinely hurt and betrayed. Like she actually betrayed him by running for her life.

Kasha's foot then snagged on a protruding wire, and it sent her falling harshly to the hard concrete floor with a painful thud. "Fuck. I'm a dead woman now. I'm fucking dead." She thought, trying to scramble to her feet as quickly as she could.

But it wasn't quick enough.

Eddie had easily caught up to her. He grabbed Kasha in both of his strong arms, holding her in a firm choke hold. Kasha panicked as she felt her wind pipes close under the pressure of his arm. She clawed at his arm, violently kicking at his legs, but it only quickened the process.

"Damn it, darling! Hold... Still!" He commanded, and just then, Kasha's body fell limp in his arms. He smirked, scooping her body up bridal style with both arms as he proudly made his way down the hallway. "You're going to get special treatment, darling. You'll be just like a little girl again..." He said, speaking to no one but Kasha's unconscious body. "You're my prize. A delicacy... To be savored. Again, again, and again."

His figure faded into the depths of the hallway, as he held his precious bride in his arms.


	5. Duality

Kasha's vision faded in and out, her surroundings remaining shrouded with obscurity. As her consciousness drifted in and out, only one solitary thing stood out to her; the horrible stench of rotting flesh.

She could hear the buzzing of insects dancing through the stagnant, lukewarm air, and she felt the firm hold of Gluskin's arms under her body. Her head limply dipped back against his bicep, her long obsidian hair falling down in a tumbled mess, hanging loosely in the air as he carried her. As Gluskin moved through his workshop, Kasha's eyes squinted open to see the gruesome scene before her.

Her vision was still blurred, but she could make out the shape of a crimson drenched table. It looked like there could have been two more to it's right, but this particular table stood out; it was the only one that had been bathed in light. The partially metal table was completely painted in the blood of likely hundreds of people, and, better yet, it came equipped with a spherical buzz saw attached to it's end. Kasha could feel herself being laid down flat on her back against one of the tables to the right of the illuminated one. She sighed, and shut her eyes again, drifting off.

Once her eyes had opened again, her head was turned to face the bloodied table beside her. On it, a completely nude and helpless victim had been restrained by ropes at his wrists and ankles, each limb being pulled apart in a spread eagle position. The sound of the buzz saw whirring in the small room made Kasha's teeth grind with anxiety. Slowly, Kasha regained her consciousness completely.

But at that moment, she had sincerely regretted regaining that consciousness.

Gluskin untied the man aggressively, his arms yanking at the rope knots. The man shrieked and screamed in terror, but it seemed to only fuel Gluskin's anger. "You're just another whore, aren't you?! You want to leave me?! Fine! You're not even worth stringing up!" Gluskin growled, his tone of voice being a stark contrast to the gentle, charming voice that Kasha had only just heard minutes ago. He grabbed the man by his throat, and twisted his body around to face the buzz saw.

"N-No- PLEASE! PLEASE!" The man begged, his voice broken with violent sobbing.

Gluskin didn't even seem to acknowledge the man's sorrow. Mercilessly, he shoved the man's face directly into the buzz saw. Crimson sprayed every which way from his face as the man let out his final scream, the sound of bone being sawed through being the one distinct thing that Kasha knew she would probably never forget. It took an extraordinary amount of self control for Kasha to remain calm whilst witnessing all of this. After the saw broke through the length of the man's skull, cutting through his head like a knife through a cake, Gluskin pushed his body over the edge of the table carelessly; like he'd been disposing of trash.

Kasha immediately closed her eyes and pretended to still be unconscious once Gluskin had begun making his way back over to his new prized possession: Her. He looked her over, scowling at her attire. "You're barely even clothed." He commented snidely, "Only a whore would show that much skin voluntarily. This... This won't do." He said, sighing, as he scooped Kasha back up in his arms. 

"You're going to be beautiful, darling... So, so beautiful." He muttered, his voice a haunting breeze over Kasha's face. His breath smelled like he hadn't brushed his teeth in at least ten years. She wouldn't be surprised if that actually was the case, honestly. Nevertheless, she didn't respond. It took everything in her power to keep her breathing leveled and calm, to further convince him that she'd actually still been unconscious.

Gluskin entered a rectangular room that had been segregated from his main workshop, located only just down the hall from the previous room. This room seemed to double as his living space. On the floor laid a filthy mattress with shredded sheets neatly folded over it's surface, a single stained pillow directly at the front of the mattress. The flooring was wooden, predictably, while the walls were concrete. Chipping wallpaper decorated the walls, along with Gluskin's doodles of wedding dresses being pinned sporadically around the surface of each wall. At the room's center sat a circular wooden table with a blood stained rag neatly placed over it's surface, likely to act as a table cloth. Next to his "bed" sat what looked like a bookshelf, with various aged books taking residence within it's shelves. The entire room was surprisingly well organized.

However, the table to the far right of the room was what was beginning to concern Kasha. It looked identical to the tables that Kasha had seen in the previous room, only on this one, there were more restraints coiled up at it's sides, waiting to be used. A dimly lit lamp hung from the ceiling over the table, it's light flickering ominously. Gluskin laid Kasha down just as he did before, flat on her back. Kasha decided to play it cool. If she tried to escape now, it would likely result in a blade through her gut. Gluskin secured the restraints around her wrists and ankles, along with an additional belt restraint around her torso.

Kasha, then, dropped the facade and slowly opened her eyes. She turned her head to look at Gluskin questionably, tugging at her restraints. "What is this, huh? Let me guess, you intend to kill me? Wow, plot twist." She sarcastically spat, her eyes narrowed into a glare.

Gluskin frowned, his jaw tightening. "If you're going to behave like that, darling, then I may just spare you the exposition." He growled, his voice dropping to a rather low and threatening tone. It sent chills up Kasha's spine. But she wouldn't allow him to know that she was afraid. If there was anything that Kasha despised, it was showing weakness toward her enemies. Gluskin ran his hand down the center of Kasha's torso, his eyes scanning her figure almost analytically. After some thought, he backed away from her "bed" and turned his back, heading for the door. "I'll be back shortly, darling. I know that you must be as eager as I am to consummate our love... But, please, try to enjoy the anticipation." He purred, exiting the room.

Finally being left alone, Kasha couldn't repress her pathetic panic any longer. Tears poured down her face as if they'd been pounding at the locked doors of her eyelids this entire time, waiting to be freed. She gasped against her sobs, slumping her head back against the table. "This man is going to fucking kill me. I... No, I can't just let him do this. I have to fight back. I have to. But..." She trailed off, her voice hushed. How? Then, a thought struck her. A wide, mischievous grin spread across Kasha's pale face; she couldn't wipe her tears away, unfortunately, but the tears had stopped flowing once a renewed sense of power came back to her.

"Perhaps... I could merely play into his fantasies. If I played my part in his play, perhaps I'd eventually gain his trust..." She thought to herself, in case he was nearby. Part of her despised the idea of putting herself in that position, however. Her pride was currently the brick wall segregating her between this master plan that she was concocting in her head. She let out a heavy sigh through her nose, rolling her eyes. "... I could manipulate him, and make him MY prey. I could turn the tables, and make him believe that I've truly fallen in love with him. I know how his head works... Well, for the most part." He HAD been a patient of hers before all of this, after all. She had the advantage of already being familiar with his psychosis, and she'd be a fool not to seize the opportunity of master manipulation. The pictures of Gluskin with his father and uncle suddenly flashed through Kasha's head, making her cringe; however, Kasha couldn't dismiss this plan. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

The repressed sadist within Kasha thoroughly enjoyed the idea of making her predator the prey, and switching the roles between them. She would need to be careful, however, and play every single card correctly. One wrong move, and the balance would be tipped. It was time to put up the facade of "Gluskin's bride to be."

Gluskin returned into the room, shutting the door behind him. He seemed to be holding a bundle of slightly stained clothing – A dress, in fact – and it made Kasha's stomach twist with disgust. He held it up for Kasha to observe. The dress was simple, but the stitching looked a tad... Sporadic; the stitch lines could clearly be seen sewn across the off white dress every which way, along with some old blood stains tainting the torso of the dress and, to add to the "creepy bullshit" factor, there seemed to be a tear at the center of the blood stain... Which was, most likely, where a blade had previously been. Clearly, the dress was... Used.

"Here, darling, I've brought this for you to change into. Those... Unsightly clothes..." He regarded with slight disgust, scowling. "They don't do your beauty justice. You'll need to be perfectly dressed for the ceremony."

"Did you make that dress yourself?" She asked, then looked down at her restraints. "I don't think I'll be able to try that gorgeous dress on if I'm all tied up to a table like this, dear." She affectionately regarded, pressing emphasis on the word. She wanted to play into his delusions. She wanted to make him truly immerse himself in the fake world that he'd crafted for himself. All it would take was just... A mere push in the right direction.

Gluskin placed the dress down on the table at the center of the room, hurrying over to Kasha's table. "Oh, I'm so sorry darling! Eddie, you doofus... You'd forget your own head if it wasn't already screwed on, wouldn't you?" He said to himself, undoing Kasha's restraints. However, he paused. Just as he was about to unbuckle to first restraint at Kasha's left wrist, he turned his head to make direct eye contact with her. Kasha shrank back against his stare. There was something... Horrible in his eyes. Malicious intent. He switched his mannerisms on a dime.

"If you leave me, like all of those other... Whores..." He spat, his voice dripping with raw anger in a deep, low growl. "... You'll be hung like the rest of them."

Kasha's eyes widened, her heart beginning to pound in her chest. Oh, fuck. The look in that man's eyes had told Kasha everything that she needed to know. The sheer tone of his voice... It was filled with so much hatred, such raw malice. She shivered, goosebumps rising all over her body. But, she couldn't allow her voice to be anything but completely confident. She needed this illusion to work; her life absolutely depended on it. 

"I'm not going to leave you, Eddie. What reason would I have to do that?" She said, her tone of voice surprisingly calm and reasoning. Good. She'd pulled it off, despite the panic attack that she was having internally. All she would need to do is keep this up, and hopefully, she'd gain his trust eventually. Hopefully.

Gluskin's jaw tightened, and his eyes narrowed skeptically. He didn't believe her. But on the other hand, she had been the only one to ever say that to him. All of the others had just run away from him. He shook his head and undid the restraints around her.

Kasha sat up and hopped off of the bed casually, looking around at the little room that Gluskin had set up for himself with a faint smile. "This room is probably the most organized room that I've ever seen in this damned place." She laughed, picking up the tattered white dress off of the table. She looked over at him, "Oh... Uh, do you mind?"

He seemed genuinely clueless.

"... Um, turning around? So I can change?" She asked as politely as she could, a shy smile on her face.

Much to Kasha's surprise, he seemed incredibly offended by that. "Darling, if we're going to be married, I see no need for you to be uncomfortable around me whilst in your most vulnerable state. What, do you -" He scowled. "You don't love me anymore, do you?" His tone dropped back down into that horrible growl; Kasha needed to fix this. Now.

She remained calm and composed. "No! Oh no, honey! Of course that's not the case!" Kasha found herself having to literally force the word "honey" out. God, she hated doing this shit. But she intended to survive getting out of this place; if this is what she needed to do, then so be it. Pride be damned. "I just... Well, you know. A groom should never see his bride so alluringly just before their wedding day, right?" She said, with a smirk. "You should savor that sight for the special day."

That seemed to work. He smiled. "Ah, yes, of course. Me and my vulgarity..." He said, turning his back to her. Eddie's mind had been so obsessed and deluded with chasing his fantasies that he'd failed to notice that, rather suddenly, Kasha's attitude towards him had changed seemingly on a dime. He had simply embraced this new personality as if Kasha had never previously expressed any contempt toward him. 

Kasha slipped out of her weathered, long sleeved shirt which, at this point, had barely even been holding together. The fabric was ripped to high hell, and the shirt wasn't even worth using as a piece of toilet paper to wipe your ass with. She tossed it aside, then slipped the dress on. It was a tad small on her, her figure being slightly too curvaceous for the dress, but it ended up working out well enough. The dress ended at her knees, but the bottom hemming had been frayed and ripped... As if someone had been running in it.

"Alright, I'm dressed."

He turned back around, smiling affectionately at the sight of his beautiful bride. "It looks beautiful on you, darling..." He commented, awe struck, before his blue eyes averted to the table. His tone dropped. "But there's work to be done on you... Come now, darling." He gestured to the table with a wave of his hand. 

Kasha knew that she couldn't show a single ounce of hesitation if she wanted to make her performance believable. She swallowed every instinct in her that told her to turn around and run the fuck out of this room, and walked over to the table. She laid herself down on her back, smiling up at her... "Husband." Ew.

Gluskin pensively looked at the restraints, a hand on his chin. He was contemplating on whether or not to use them, and he soon after came to his conclusion. "I'm not going to restrain you this time, darling. I want to test you, and... Your love for me." As he spoke, his right hand guided itself to her long, slender legs, stopping at her right knee to gently bend the joint upward; gravity slid her dress down the length of her thigh, causing it to fall in a bundled heap against her wide hips. He then elevated the same leg further, resting her ankle against his broad shoulder, his hand softly gliding up and down the lusciously smooth skin of her thigh. Internally, Kasha was screaming. But she intended to pass this little "test" of his. 

"Your skin is so... Smooth. So beautiful." He commented, silently intoxicating himself in the feeling of a real woman's flesh. He'd almost forgotten what a true woman had felt like... Without having to be MADE into one. Every inch of this woman's skin only tempted him further; he wanted to press this woman's limits, to truly see if her love for him was legitimate. There was no other way. If she truly did love him, would she not adore the touch of her beloved husband?

Gluskin's hand journeyed to the upper half of her body, his attention shifting. He rested both of his hands firmly on her waist while his face dipped down to meet the delicate flesh of her glorious, pale neck. Kasha's body went rigid. She felt his rough, heavily chapped and partially disfigured lips plant a trail of gentle kisses that began at her collar bone, then continued up the gracious slope of her neck, ending at her jaw line. The warm, distilled breath that escaped through his lips between each kiss prompted goosebumps to litter Kasha's flesh; provoking her to bite her lower lip in an effort to repress an unwanted reaction to his advances. Instinctively, she wanted to plant her knee into his gut and push him away. Her survival instincts practically screamed at her to do so, in fact. 

Unfortunately, however, she knew that attacking him and banishing his touch was no longer an option if she intended to survive this ordeal. She knew damned well that the only way that she was going to survive this encounter with him was if she stuck to the plan and, in order to do that, she needed to painstakingly play her part in this play. No matter what it took. She needed to remain consistent with this.

She could feel the warm touch of his tongue licking at her flesh, his saliva smelling putrid. But to further convince him that she was reciprocating his actions, she leaned her head away from him to give him more space to work. His teeth came out to gently bite at the delicate flesh of her throat, giving some attention to her earlobe as well with another small bite. Kasha felt herself growing progressively hotter, and it was starting to concern her.

With his spare hand, he grabbed Kasha's chin and aggressively jerked her head to meet with his face, which now hovered a mere inch or so above her own rather dauntingly. Kasha took that moment to observe the rashes and lesions that had infested this man's once handsome face; she could clearly remember what he used to look like... Back when he'd entered her office. He used to be quite a good looking man, to be completely honest. But this place... This fucking place... This is what this asylum did to people. The exposure to the Morphogenic Engine had done this to him... Changed him into this fucking monster. Silently, Kasha felt a wave of disgust towards the Murkoff Corporation heat up within her.

If this man had gotten the help and therapy that he so desperately needed... Now, she felt personally responsible for Eddie's unfortunate fate. She could have changed this. She could have done something more, right?

Kasha's thoughts were interrupted by his smooth voice. "Tell me that you love me, darling. I need to hear you say it." Gluskin seemed to be looking down at her expectantly. If she didn't say it exactly the way that he wanted her to... The gig was up. Kasha felt incredibly nervous, like she was auditioning for a play in high school. She needed to gain his acceptance for any of this to work.

"I love you, Eddie. I would never leave you. I would never hurt you." She said, the sincerity in her voice sounding as genuine as she could muster.

He scanned her expression over carefully, observing every inflection on her face as she spoke. Kasha tried not to look nervous. After what felt like an eternity of tense silence, Gluskin finally gave Kasha an accepting, soft smile. He brought his face down to close the distance between their lips, his kiss slightly awkward and staled. Clearly, he hadn't kissed somebody in a while. So, Kasha helped him along by returning his kiss with the fluid motion of her lips against his, her unrestrained hands going up to touch either side of his face affectionately. She could feel Eddie smiling against her lips at her gesture.

Unexpectedly, his lips retreated to engage a greedy attack against her neck; his teeth bit into her skin with an aggressive fervor, his thirst for her palpable through the passionate, ravenous kisses being planted against freshly established bruises along her throat. Kasha couldn't control herself as her breathing audibly hitched, her head dipping back. She was beginning to lose herself in him, and it deeply concerned her. Oh, god. No. 

But she couldn't push him away. This was probably the most trapped that she'd ever felt in her entire life. She felt such a strong inclination to shove him away and reject every single ounce of his affection, mostly because she could feel herself becoming susceptible to it. That was the last thing that she wanted. Enacting her role in this play was beginning to become an agonizing task.

Gluskin finally retracted, his thumb stroking her cheek. "Now, now... We can't get too carried away, darling. We'll have to save that for after the ceremony. Then, I promise, I'll make an honest woman of you. I'll take care of you." He walked away from the table, pacing. "I will never let anything happen to our children. Not like..." He trailed off, and Kasha felt her heart drop into her stomach as she quickly realized how he could have ended that sentence. 

She knew exactly what he was about to say; those god awful pictures kept flashing through her head whenever she was reminded of them. She sat up from the table and walked over to him, placing her hand on his shoulder. "You'll be an amazing father, honey. I know you will." She tried to sound convincing. It seemed to work. Holy shit, she was still feeling flushed from that encounter just prior. This wasn't good. God, this man... With children? That sounded like the perfect plot for a horror movie, honestly. Maybe she'd pitch this idea to a director in Hollywood once she'd escaped this place. She snickered softly to herself. Lucky for her, Gluskin didn't hear it.

Kasha wondered if Gluskin remembered the fact that she'd known everything about his past. She wondered if he even knew who she was anymore. He had recognized her before, but only once. Perhaps he was just so caught up in his deluded fantasies that he'd simply forgotten? Throughout their time together, he hadn't referenced his time as her patient even once. Kasha was tempted to figure out a way to remind him. But... Would that break the illusion?

The door to Gluskin's room then, suddenly, violently crashed down against the wooden floor. Kasha jumped, startled. Gluskin's head snapped to identify the intruder, his hands clenching into fists with immediate, protective rage. Standing in the doorway was what looked like a normal patient, his skin moderately mutated; he held a brick in his hand. He brought his arm back and violently threw it at Gluskin's head, the brick hitting him with a painful thud. Kasha backed away from Gluskin immediately, already knowing what was going to happen next.

However, much to Kasha's surprise, the patient had actually then chosen to attack her instead of Gluskin. He ran up and grabbed Kasha by her shoulders, slamming her against the wall. "You're both gonna die here, you filthy fucks!" The patient spat, "Your husband killed my brother!" Kasha had to think quickly, because Gluskin was already advancing towards the both of them the instant the patient laid a finger on her.

"Don't you touch her, you filthy fucking PIG! SHE'S MINE!" Gluskin roared possessively, reaching for the man. But before Gluskin could get a hold of him, Kasha decided to trip the man and slam him down onto the floor herself. She didn't want Gluskin protecting her. She wanted him to know that she could defend herself.

Kasha grabbed Gluskin's knife from the nearby table and, without hesitation, began repeatedly plunging the blade into the man's torso, once again feeling that slightly surreal sensation of the blade grinding against human bone. The fact that she'd taken a liking to the sensation concerned her. Each impact sent a new squirt of crimson projecting outward as Kasha pierced the man's arteries surrounding his heart. He tried to fight against her, but he was already bleeding out and succumbing to death; it was too late for him. Kasha then plunged the blade directly into his right eye socket, twisting the blade within the crevice, feeling her victim writhe in agony beneath her. She felt a jolt of euphoric adrenaline course through her body as his pained screams cried out into the open air. Not long after, she felt him fall limp as death overcame him. She slowly rose to her feet, droplets of red escaping from the tip of the blade. Now, there were new blood stains on her white dress.

She turned around nervously, gauging Gluskin's reaction; her eyes retained a disturbing apathetic void within them.

Gluskin stood rooted to the spot, his jaw tight. He looked absolutely livid. Kasha gave him a confused expression. "Aren't you happy, dear? I killed hi-"

"NO! You... You let him touch you! You wanted it, didn't you? You wanted him to touch you!" He shrieked, stepping towards her. Luckily for Kasha, she had his knife. "I knew you were like the others! You're all LIARS! FILTHY FUCKING SLUTS!" He slurred, looking at Kasha's dress. He scowled, "His... His filth is all over you! HIS FILTH HAS STAINED YOU! You filthy fucking WHORE!"

Kasha was beyond confused; it almost seemed like he was looking for a reason to get pissed off at her. She backed away from him slowly, holding her hands up submissively. "Now, dear... You know that's not true. I just passed your test, didn't I? Don't you trust me?" She asked, her words sweet and composed.

But that only seemed to push him further off of the edge. As he passed the circular table, he violently flung it off of the floor and sent it flying across the room. "YOU USED ME! A filthy slut like you would love nothing more than to take all of the attention that she can get!"

It was time for Kasha to run. That look in his eyes... God, it was horrifying. It was the gaze of a man who had only a mere shred of humanity left within him, and even that small shred had been deeply buried and repressed. Kasha wouldn't be able to reason with him at this point. If she stood here for another moment longer, he would kill her. For that, she was certain.

Kasha frantically pushed herself towards the doorway and out into the hall, dodging any debris that she could potentially trip on as she ran for her life. Gluskin chased after her relentlessly, shouting every slur in the book at her.

"THEY ALWAYS RUN! ALWAYS!" He roared, "And to think, I thought that you were different! NO! You're just another UNGRATEFUL SLUT!"

Kasha had no idea where she intended to go. With luck, she would make her way back to that window that she'd broken into to get in here in the first place. If she could get back to that first room with the sewing machines... Perhaps she'd be home free.

Maybe.


	6. Psychosis

Kasha's body was exhausted beyond it's limits, and it was a miracle in and of itself that her legs could still carry her. She needed to think fast, because she could surely lose her life within the next five minutes if she made a wrong move. Kasha dashed through the abysmal halls as Gluskin continued to give chase, her breathing coming out in panted heaves. Fucking hell, she felt like she was going to have a heart attack. Agonizingly sharp gravel and other various chunks of debris scattered about the halls punctured the delicate skin of Kasha's bare soles, only further reminding her that running for her life without shoes on was hell in and of itself. Gluskin's hysterical screams could still be heard echoing from somewhere behind her; he sounded much farther away, luckily. Perhaps she'd finally tired him out. This was her opportunity to escape and hide somewhere.

"Use the shadows to your advantage, Kasha. Use the shadows." She thought to herself, making a sharp right turn into one of the many rooms inhabiting the long, dark hallway. She found a vent within a reachable height mounted into the wall adjacent to her position, so she made a run for it without a second thought. Kasha vaulted over a destroyed table and jumped for the vent, pulling herself up and into it's dusty confines by her arms. Once she was inside the safety of the vent, Gluskin's haunting voice began to smoothly ring out through the stagnant air.

"When I was a boy my mother often said to me... Get married son and see, how happy you will be..."

His voice was faint, and barely audible in the distance. Good, she was safe. For now. She needed to take a moment to rest. Otherwise, she knew that her body was going to give out on her any minute now. In this rare moment of calmness, Kasha's mind wandered to the nature of Eddie Gluskin's psychosis. As a trained psychologist, despite the fact that this same man was currently trying to hunt her down and slay her like a pig, she found herself to be intrigued by the process of his psychosis. Primarily, she couldn't help but observe his very obvious and drastically untreated bi-polar disorder; on a dime, Eddie was capable of switching from one side of the emotional spectrum to the other. He could go from being charming and doting to being the single most terrifying human being that Kasha had ever witnessed. Ted Bundy had absolutely nothing on Eddie's inflated Jekyll and Hyde bullshit. 

Another interesting observation were his glaringly apparent delusions, accompanied by the fantasies that he chose to stubbornly live within, seemingly preferring them to reality itself. Was it simply that he preferred the fantasies, or did he genuinely believe them to be real through his psychosis? Kasha suspected the latter. By this point, his mind had been far too lost to both his own personal psychosis and the influence of the morphogenic engine to be able to properly distinguish reality. Only one thing was for certain in Kasha's mind, however; Eddie Gluskin's psychosis was not his fault. The horrible happenings of his life crafted him into the monster that he is today. 

Her thoughts were interrupted by the last voice that she wanted to hear right now, and her breath caught in her throat as a burst of adrenaline coursed through her. Fucking hell, when would this nightmare be over?

"You can't hide from me, darling... You'll run out of places to go eventually." He taunted, his voice sounding like it was now merely on the other side of the wall.

Kasha's body tensed up. If she just stayed quiet, there was no way that he'd be able to find her in this vent. All she needed to do was remain stiller than a statue, and then she'd be able to make her way through the rest of the vent safely. Her hands were cupped over her mouth in hopes of muffling the sounds of her breathing. 

"I truly did believe that you were going to be different, you know. Such a shame... Such a shame that you turned out to be just another _whore_..." He spat the word with such an intense level of hatred and malice, growling the word out through clenched teeth.

Kasha couldn't help but wonder if he even knew why he was so angry with her; by this point, Kasha sincerely believed that Eddie fished for a solid reason or an excuse to kill his victims. Perhaps to play into his fantasies, and convince himself that they _deserved_ it...? He never seemed to impulsively kill, he always seemed to need a _reason_. Kasha let out a breath of relief once she heard Gluskin's heavy footsteps finally scuffling away, presumably into the next hallway over; with that, she assumed that it was safe for her to travel the rest of the way through the vent. She crawled on her hands and knees, then plopped down flat on her feet on the other side.

The texture of the floor was... Different, compared to the other rooms. It was a polished wood, similar to a gymnasium's floor. Wait, no, it _was_ a gymnasium! Kasha could hardly tell, seeing as the floor had been completely soaked in both fresh and dried blood, accompanied with piled of rotting corpses carelessly thrown wherever they fell. The actual floor could very scarcely be seen through the abundance of corpses and debris, which had fallen from the tall ceiling above. The gymnasium itself was extremely spacious, which came at a disadvantage to Kasha; each and every movement she made warranted an echo. Two basketball hoops stood opposite of each other on either side of the large gymnasium, but... That was when Kasha noticed something particularly strange.

At the center of the gymnasium was some kind... Contraption, and protruding from the base of it was a disorganized mess of thick cables, all of which ascended upward toward the ceiling. There were two other cabled contraptions not far off from the first, and all of them seemed to lead up into the ceiling. Curiously, Kasha's eyes followed the cables up. Her brown eyes went wide with complete horror once she'd reached the cable's fixed destination.

Bodies; all hung like pigs by their ankles, dangling in rows of at least a hundred or more. It was an absolute sea of the dead, and Kasha couldn't believe her eyes. In this moment, she knew that she would never witness anything worse than this throughout the duration of her life. God, she felt nauseous. The smell of decaying flesh absolutely overwhelmed her senses. Interestingly, each originally male body had been horribly mutilated in an attempt to make them all appear biologically female; each of them had hunks of flesh sewn on to their chests to replicate female breasts, and all of them had their genitalia amateurishly lobbed off and replaced with a gnarly slit to replicate a vagina. They all mirrored each other, and this horrific scene was evidence of exactly how long Eddie's insane, redundant cycle had gone on for. Jesus fucking Christ.

She walked closer to the largest cable contraption, her shock and horror quickly twisting into raw hatred and disgust. Not towards Gluskin, but toward the Murkoff Corporation as a whole. She did place blame on Eddie for his very clearly deplorable, excessive behavior, but when it all came down to it, Murkoff was to blame at the very root of it all. 

If this patient had gotten the help and therapy that he so desperately needed, this shit would never have happened. It would never have gotten this bad. But, no. To Murkoff, profit takes precedence over mental health. Instead of helping this clearly severely mentally ill patient, they chose to use him as some sort of fucked up guinea pig for the Walrider Project. They chose to not only worsen his mental health, but accelerate him into pure insanity; and yet, Kasha couldn't help but feel personally responsible in some regard. He was _her_ patient, after all. She personally cared for him, but Murkoff put relentless limitations on what she could and could not do for her patients. She could have helped Eddie _so much more..._

Eddie Gluskin was not entirely to blame here. He didn't choose to be thrown into that pod, and he certainly did not choose to connect with the Morphogenic Engine.

It was then that Kasha remembered reading the details of his patient file. She clearly remembered reading about his previous crimes before being admitted into the asylum... He'd mutilated women, just as he was doing now. She scowled. That could not be excused. She couldn't, in a million years, excuse or condone his mutilation of women before his admittance, but she was absolutely certain that all of... _This..._ Could easily have been avoided if it wasn't for this stupid fucking vile corporation. Kasha's jaw tightened, and her hands clenched into rigged fists.

Suddenly, two masculine arms wrapped around Kasha's small waist from behind, violently turning and throwing her a good couple of feet away. She crashed and tumbled onto the gymnasium's floor, rolling over sharp debris; she'd been taken completely by surprise. She, once again, had allowed herself to get wrapped up in her own thoughts, which ultimately led to her current downfall. She looked up to see her attacker, desperately scrambling back up to her feet. Whoever it was, they were strong enough to knock the fucking wind out of her.

Unsurprisingly, it was Gluskin. He barreled toward her almost immediately, leaving Kasha no time to move. He closed the distance between them faster than she anticipated, and began repeatedly slamming his powerful fist into her face, causing her to stumble backwards, paining pulsating throughout her skull. "I try, and I try! But in the end, you ALL betray me! So you, my darling, get to hang with the rest of them!" He yelled, grabbing Kasha and shoving her back toward the cabled contraption. She tripped on debris and fell on her back, but Gluskin lifted her back up and placed a noose around her neck.

Kasha's eyes widened, and panic began to infest her body. This was it. She was going to die. He was going to kill her. Her hands shot up to grab at the noose almost immediately, her eyes making contact with Eddie's. "Why, Eddie?" She pleaded, in a desperate attempt to save her life. She was trying to put the facade back on, even through all of her fear. Her face throbbed with pain as she spoke. "I loved you. I was the only woman that actually loved you. Don't you see that?" She whimpered, trying not to cry out of desperation. Her survival instincts were kicking into high gear, and she was willing to do anything to stay alive by this point.

Gluskin then yanked at the rope, lifting Kasha off of her feet. She gagged, her hands still clinging to the rope around her neck, trying desperately to pull it off. "LIES! Still, you spout LIES! I'll hear none of it! You..." He trailed off, looking away. He then yanked the rope harder, pulling Kasha further up. Kasha could feel her wind pipes being constricted, and she was starting to feel the effects of strangulation as her vision blurred and warped.

"PLEASE!" Kasha choked out frantically, dropping the facade. She couldn't handle it anymore. Her world was beginning to turn black. "Just – PLEASE – look at what you're doing! Realize it!" She gagged, losing the air required to form a proper sentence. She couldn't speak anymore. She'd lost all of the remaining air in her lungs.

Memories of her life had begun to pass through her mind as her vision grew darker and darker. Memories with her sisters, back at home in California... Playing in the sun, graduating high school together... Watching her sisters all get married... Kasha smiled softly, and she felt a warmth in her chest. She was ready to die. She was ready. Anything but this place. Anything but Eddie Gluskin.

It was then that, much to Eddie's surprise, the knot of Kasha's noose began to loosen. With the addition of Kasha's weight, the knot quickly untied, and Kasha was sent falling back down toward the floor. Descending from roughly ten feet in the air, she was lucky enough to collapse on to a heap of corpses to cushion the harsh impact, but the wind had still been knocked out of her. She violently gasped for air and grabbed at her swollen throat, coughing and choking as she struggled to regulate herself. 

As Kasha's world came back to her, the first thing she felt was an overwhelming feeling of miserable dread. She was so ready to die... But, no. Clearly, it wasn't her time yet. _Fate be fucking damned._ Physically exhausted and still desperately trying to introduce oxygen back into her system, she lacked the energy to stand or try to scramble away from Eddie, who now approached her. Honestly, she didn't even care anymore. If he was going to kill her, fine. Mutilate her? _Fine._ If it meant getting her out of this hell hole, then so be it. She laid flat on her back amidst the corpses, eyes open, staring at the ceiling as she regulated her breathing. Eddie stood beside her, his body looming threateningly over her; he looked down at her, but did nothing. He seemed to be... Thinking. Pondering. He lifted his foot, and hovered it over Kasha's head. He was contemplating on whether or not to finish her off, here and now.

Kasha's eyes shifted to lethargically look up at him, their eyes meeting, her voice muffled against the bottom of his shoe. "Do you... Remember who I am?" Kasha croaked out, her voice now hoarse. She was sincerely disappointed that she hadn't died. But if he was going to finish her off now, she wanted to die with closure.

Eddie narrowed his eyes, thinking for a moment. Then, it came to him. The therapist. It was difficult for him to remember at first, considering that he'd seen many therapists during his stay in Mount Massive. His only way of remembering her was...

"Do you remember what I said to you, Eddie? After I... Saw those pictures?" She asked, "You thanked me after I said it to you. Do you remember that?" She normally would have been reluctant to mention the dreaded pictures in fear of angering him, but right now, she didn't care. If she died, she died. So be it.

He did remember. It had been the only way that he was able to distinguish her from the other therapists, because her words... Seemed to hold weight. Unlike all of those other miserable jack-booted fucks. That day, he left her office and carried those words with him. Eddie was silent for a long time, leaving his foot hovering over Kasha's face the entire time. Finally, he recited Kasha's words back to her with a low, flat tone.

"...What those filthy pieces of shit did to you shouldn't shape who you are, Eddie. You are not your childhood traumas. I mean that..." He echoed, looking away. He began pressing his foot against Kasha's face.

This was the most lucid that she had ever seen him. "Eddie, before you kill me, I need you to realize something; Murkoff did this to you. You were already a sick bastard before, but those pieces of shit men... Your father and uncle... Eddie, they made you that way. Please realize that. You've allowed your traumas to consume you and morph you into this... This monster. Some part of you must realize that, perhaps some _shred_ of humanity buried deep within you. You just don't want to face it. Instead, you'd rather keep living in your fantasy world."

Eddie could have shut her up and killed her in the middle of her speech, but he didn't. He didn't even seem like he was entirely here at the moment. He gazed off, deep in thought, his partially deformed lips twisting into a scowl. He then lifted his boot off of her face, and stepped away from her silently. "The things that they did to me... When I was small..." He began, disregarding everything else she'd said, his hands grabbing at either side of his head. It was like he was trying to physically push the memories back into is head with his hands. Kasha didn't move a muscle, because she knew exactly what was happening; he was suffering a complete mental breakdown.

He then knelt down, repressing everything that he possibly could to refrain from a full blown panic attack as the memories from his childhood began to resurface. His reality. "I didn't realize how... How FILTHY it was..." She'd never heard anyone spit out a word so hatefully before. "Only that it hurt..." His voice dropped into a mere whisper as he sat there, holding his head, crouching against the floor.

Kasha couldn't believe her luck right now. The fact that he hadn't killed her yet in a fit of a psychotic rage was something truly miraculous; she simply looked on in silence as Eddie crumbled beside her. She'd triggered him. She needed to stabilize him again.

"Eddie, calm down. You're not there anymore. _They can't hurt you._ " She said, her voice still a pathetic croak. "... If you escaped this asylum with me, perhaps you could get your revenge on them, even. Rid the world of their filth." She suggested, silently cursing herself for doing so. She felt like she was manipulating him again.

Eddie seemed to perk up. He lifted his head to meet her gaze, a small smirk on his face. "... Their filth is where all filth has originated, like a viral outbreak. Darling, would you truly do that? With me?" He seemed touched by her suggestion.

Oh, god. She was going to need to put the facade up again. "Yes, dear. Of course. If that's what you need to... Get closure, then of course. But we'll need to have the ceremony first, won't we?" She didn't even know why she was bothering anymore. She should have just said something to completely piss him off, so that he could put her out of her misery. But something still willed her to live... God, why couldn't she have just died when he'd hung her.

Eddie then walked over to Kasha, scooping her up in his arms and carrying her off somewhere. "What're you doing...?" She croaked out, coughing, as her wind pipes began expanding once again. "... You could have just finished me off right there. What stopped you?" She was inadvertently asking him to kill her. Tempting him.

He found the question to be rather peculiar. "I should have, shouldn't I? But..." He smiled, contemplating it for a moment. He brought Kasha back to his living space, this time placing her on the dirty mattress as opposed to the table with restraints. "But you see, darling... I reacted quite hastily and brutishly. I wasn't thinking clearly. Sometimes I get... Upset." He emphasized, looking away.

"Yeah, that's an understatement." Kasha commented, not particularly caring about holding up the facade anymore. Being so close to death had made her realize exactly how much she would have rather preferred it.

Eddie knelt down beside her, frowning. He held a finger up, "Now now, darling. You're going to need to behave. I won't tolerate that kind of an attitude in my beautiful bride. It's unsightly and unbecoming of a woman."

"What, to have a personality? Is that what you consider to be "unsightly" on a woman? Hm?" She truly _was_ asking for it.

Eddie growled, his temper flaring up once again. "I'm _trying_ to be patient, darling, but you're making this incredibly difficult for me. We need to prepare for the ceremony." He stood up again, then glanced over his shoulder at her. He seemed to have already been pretending like the previous conversation had never happened.

It was then that something struck Kasha. A thought. "If I get killed in here, by this idiot, then I'll never get to see my sisters have children. I'll never have grand children. God, I'll never..." She trailed off, the will to live and survive beginning to spark back into her. The only thing that was giving her motivation to survive right now was the thought of her sisters, and potentially seeing them again. All she wanted was to hug them, and babysit their children in the future.

… Enough of this depressing, fatalistic attitude. She needed to survive this. For them.

Kasha sat up as he began walking out of the room. "What do we need to do to prepare for the ceremony? Can I help?" She asked enthusiastically, masking herself in the facade once more.

He stopped. He turned back around to face Kasha, a mischievous smile on his face. "... We're going to need an audience, darling. It'd be an awfully lonely wedding without any guests! So we're going to... _Make_ guests." He grinned. "With how you handled that filthy pig earlier, I suppose you could help me. Let's go make friends, shall we?" Everything about this was twisted. But, Kasha kind of dug it... In a weird, fucked up way. It was hauntingly precious.

"So, you'd like me to help you murder people and tie them up to the chairs, then?" She asked, smirking.

"Oh, they won't be dead. But you've got the right idea. Come, darling." His voice then dropped again. "But if any of them touch you..." He growled, trailing off.

"What will you do, hang me again? I can't really incapacitate someone without them touching me, you know. People _do_ like to fight for their lives." She said sarcastically, but charmingly. The fact that she was now completely okay with harming people... It didn't sit well with her. This place changed people. Kasha now realized that. She realized that when she first enjoyed the grinding sensation of a blade against bone.

"And then after the ceremony... Oh, darling, I can't wait! We'll rid the world of it's filth!" Eddie exclaimed, making his way back out into the hallway. Kasha followed. She knew that it was probably a horrible idea to... Implement that idea into his head in the first place.

You know, the whole "elope together and slaughter his father and uncle" idea.

This wasn't going to end well.

Kasha had dug her grave far too deeply with this man. After that little... Breakthrough... There was no going back now.

Kasha was in this for the long run.


	7. A Bride for the Groom

She'd never seen such a meticulously organized room before in this entire asylum, even before the outbreak. Several rows of scavenged chairs sat symmetrically aligned on either side of a single column of rolled out red fabric, which ended at an eerily articulated "alter." At the makeshift alter stood one female mannequin, clothed in one of the many poorly sewn together wedding dresses that Eddie had crafted in his spare time. There was an empty spot adjacent to her, which was presumably where Eddie stood to act out his pseudo weddings. A single painting depicting an aged, Caucasian man acted as the "priest" for the ceremony, hanging high enough to overlook the entire scene. 

Kasha walked into the room, silently freaking the fuck out at the sight of the elaborate room. "Well, you've been busy." She commented, chuckling, as she slowly walked down the aisle to observe her surroundings. Honestly, how in the hell did he even have the time to organize all of this? The outbreak had only happened hours ago, right? Where had he found the time to do all of this?

Eddie was to Kasha's right, aggressively wrapping a rope tightly around the torso of a corpse to secure it to a chair. "Well, darling, what kind of Groom would I be if I didn't provide my beautiful wife with a place to hold our ceremony? I _am_ going to take care of you, you know... And our children."

Kasha cringed. _Children._ Good god. She decidedly ignored that comment. "So, do you need any help?"

"With what?" He seemed genuinely oblivious.

"You know, gathering an audience."

He frowned. "I know that I suggested that before, darling, but I've given it some more thought, and I simply can't tolerate you looking filthy and covered in blood on our wedding day. To be covered in the... _Filth..._ Of other men." He growled, yanking the rope into a tight, aggressive knot with a bolt of anger at the very thought. He then cast a glance at Kasha, "You... Must be _perfect_ for our wedding day."

Kasha gave a defeated sigh. There was no winning with him, was there? But, despite her disgust with his sexist attitude, she decided to play it safe and just act in his favor for the time being. As of lately, particularly after their breakthrough discussion in the gymnasium, Kasha's doting and loving wife facade was becoming less and less necessary to keep up. Somehow, after that incident, Eddie seemed to be growing more tolerant of Kasha's naturally sarcastic personality. He still, however, didn't tolerate her vulgarity. According to him and his eighteenth century mentality, it was _"unbecoming of a woman"_ to use such _"vulgar words."_ Prude. But, was he growing more comfortable with her? Impossible. 

"Aw, c'mon!" She pleaded. "I have nothing better to do; and, plus, I'd hate to see you doing all of the work for the ceremony by yourself. I promise I won't get the dress dirty. You don't need to draw blood from someone in order to kill them, you know..." She gave him a wink. Strangulation and asphyxiation was her friend, after all. 

Eddie thought on it for a moment. He still didn't particularly favor the idea, but she certainly had a way of convincing him. "... Fine. But if even a _spec_ of dirt or blood gets on your beautiful dress..." He paused, making eye contact with her. "You'll be just another whore." He growled, his voice filled with threatening intent, narrowing his eyes.

Chills ran down her spin, knowing that murderous tone of voice all too well by this point. But, nonetheless, she nodded. "Okay, that's fine. Fair enough. Just... Wait here. I'll bring in someone. Actually, perhaps I'll leave a few alive... Just so we can have some screamers." She grinned, turning to walk out of the door centered at the entrance of the aisle.

A sudden, loud crash startled Kasha. She snapped her head around to witness Eddie violently flipping one of the chairs over in protest, shouting, "NO! I will not allow any interruptions or... _annoyances_ during our ceremony. Leave them all silent, darling. Please." His voice quieted as he spoke, his anger simmering down just as quickly as it had flashed up. 

Kasha lifted her hands up like someone had pointed a gun at her, slowly backing out of the room. "Okay, okay! Sheesh. No need to get all excited, bucko." She mumbled the last part rather quietly to herself as she turned on her heel, disappearing into the darkness of the hallway. Jesus Christ, this guy was a handful. 

It didn't take long for Kasha to find someone. A variant, with rashes and lesions all over his body so advanced that they made Eddie's lesions look fabulous and pristine, dashed across the hall to dart into another room. Kasha watched him run, a sinister and hauntingly predatory grin spreading across her pale, dirty face. _First victim._ She never thought that, for once, _she_ would be the one doing the hunting through these halls; she was no longer the defenseless victim that hid and ran from her attackers. Now, she was a lion among sheep. She relished in the almost euphoric sensation a little too much. 

Like a skilled predator, Kasha traced her prey's steps, following each and every moment he made until, finally, she found herself in a dilapidated room. She was surprised, however, to find that the variant had been expecting her. Ah, so her victim was smarter than she'd anticipated... Good, that made the chase all the more interesting. The variant had been waiting behind the open door, anticipating her entrance. Once she did enter, he relentlessly slammed his fist into the side of Kasha's face, sending her stumbling to the right. That punch had actually hurt her far more than it should have, considering that her face was still swollen and bruised from the blows that Eddie had laid on her face only just hours prior. 

"FUCK!" She yelled, rubbing her face. "Why does everyone in this god damned asylum insist on punching me in the _fucking_ face? Are you kidding me? God, I can't _wait_ to rip your fucking throat out." She growled through clenched teeth, her face throbbing in pain. 

"Y-You can try, you stupid bitch! You won't catch me!" He taunted, beginning to run in the opposite direction. However, due to his lack of attention to his surroundings, the poor bastard had inadvertently inched himself dangerously close to the adjacent corner of the room. 

Kasha charged at the variant, grabbing him by his shoulders and shoving him into the corner, kneeing him squarely in the groin not once, but three times. The variant's hands shot down to his groin, crying out in pain. But Kasha needed to shut him up. She clasped her hands tightly around his throat and began shaking him, her nails digging into the flesh of his neck, piercing the skin. He writhed desperately beneath her, kicking her legs with his own, and clawing at her arms. Within a couple of minutes, however, the variant's body went limp in Kasha's hands. "God, that could have gone a bit smoother." She commented, rubbing her sore cheek. Hopefully, Eddie wouldn't get mad about that. 

Kasha grabbed the variant's lifeless corpse and flung him over her shoulder, lugging the heavy body out of the room. She made her way back into the ceremony room, huffing with the strain of carrying so much weight. "These fuckers are heavier than they look." She complained, slumping the corpse down into one of the chairs. Eddie, who had the rope coil, quickly walked over and started wrapping the rope around the body.

Kasha stood back, her arms crossed. "Why are you wrapping the rope around them? They're dead. They're not going anywhere."

"They're not _dead,_ darling. They're... They're our witnesses." Eddie snapped, tying the knot. "They're... Asleep; and when they wake, we can't have them leaving before the wedding reception, now can we?" He kept his back to her as he fiddled with the rope.

Kasha felt a pang of pity wave through her. Eddie was too far gone. All of the therapy in the world would never be able to "fix" him at this point, because he truly believed that these variants were still alive, somehow, through his delusions; despite the fact that he himself had killed one of them.

Kasha remembered reading something on his patient file that matched this behavior. He'd mutilated all of those women and murdered them in cold blood, but he apparently denied that the women, his victims, were even dead at all. It was then even more clear to Kasha that his psychosis was very, very deeply rooted. More deeply than she'd originally thought. She shook her head, sighing. "... You're right, Eddie, they're just sleeping." She said, rolling her eyes. Even though, obviously, she knew better.

Eddie then turned around to eye Kasha up and down, making sure that her dress hadn't been ruined during the scuffle with the variant. Not a spec of blood. Good. But then, his blue eyes wandered up to her face, and his lips twisted into a disapproving scowl. He approached Kasha, his hand lifting caress the side of her face with surprisingly gentle fingers; the expression on his face, however, drastically contrasted his affectionate touch. He looked furious.

"Did he... Did he do this to you, darling? Did he touch you?" He growled, stroking her cheek with his hand.

"Yeah, he took me by surprise and managed to punch me. But, I just strangled him. So it worked out." She said it so casually. This place had changed her. For that, she was certain.

But Eddie's expression only seemed to darken. "You let him _touch_ you?" He hissed, sheer malice in his voice. Kasha recognized that tone of his voice. He was on the verge of another vicious rage. Again. If Kasha didn't defuse him within the next couple of seconds, she would likely lose her life. 

"No, honey! Of course not!" She started, wearing the facade once more. She needed it right now. "Why would I ever want any other man's touch? He attacked me, dear. I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have allowed him to lay a finger on me." Internally, however, she was screaming at him. How in the ever loving _fuck_ was she supposed to attack and kill people without letting them lay a single finger on her? Eddie's logic was beyond idiotic. 

Eddie's hand moved from stroking her swollen cheek to grasp at her throat, his fingers clamping down tightly. Kasha choked and gasped. "You try my patience, darling. Again and again, you let these men touch you. You want them to, don't you? You want their attention! What, is it me? I must not be good enough for you anymore, you filthy fucking SLUT!" Eddie gripped her throat tighter.

Oh, god. Not _this_ shit again. For some reason, he seemed to favor strangling her. I mean, for fuck's sake, she'd only just survived nearly dying when he tried hanging her from the god damned rafters. It was then that Kasha was reminded of that conversation that she'd had with him, shortly after she'd been saved by a stroke of miraculous luck. It seemed like Kasha had gotten through to him at that time...

She was started to get better an pacifying him. Pacifying Eddie Gluskin was certainly an acquired skill. But, once you'd mastered it, he was fairly easy to defuse. He seemed to have a repetitive cycle of anger, anyway. The same things always got him going. As a psychologist, it was incredibly easy for Kasha to realize this.

Kasha brought her hand up and gently placed it on Eddie's forearm, stroking his arm affectionately as she made eye contact with him, all the while struggling to breathe. Her words came out in a strained choke, "Eddie... Remember what I said before; you are not your childhood traumas. Do not allow your traumas to control you." She said, once again reciting what she'd said back in her office to him. God, normal life felt like it existed millions of years ago now. She spoke with a surprising softness to her voice. Kasha could be sweet when she tried to be... Or, rather, when she was trying to manipulate a psychotic, homicidal lunatic to save her life. 

Eddie paused, his grip loosening ever so slightly. "Shut up. SHUT _UP!_ " He yelled, looking away. It was hard for Eddie to think through his blind rage. But, part of him knew that those words in particular would always hold weight. However, in his current state of mind, he legitimately couldn't rationalize his actions. He wasn't capable of rationalization anymore.

Kasha could tell that she'd gotten through to him. At least, slightly. She felt his grip loosen. So, she continued. "You don't want to kill me, Eddie. You'll regret it. You'll be alone, in a building filled with nothing but ungrateful sluts. Remember what we talked about in the gymnasium? Have a clear mind, Eddie. You love me, right? We're already so close to having the ceremony... Have you ever held a ceremony before?"

That last question in particular stuck out to Eddie exceptionally. _Have you ever held a ceremony before?_ The question echoed through his mind multiple times. He realized, then, that he had never had one. None of those... _Sluts_ had ever gotten this far with him. They always ran, or they would always choose death over being with him. But this woman... She was different. _Special._

He released his vice grip on her throat, and turned his back on her. He silently walked out into the hallway, externally seeming to disregard most of her words, but internally, he thought them over obsessively. "Come, darling. We still have more guests to collect. We don't want them being late for our ceremony." His voice had lowered into an almost alarmingly calm, stoic tone, which drastically contrasted how bitterly angry he was only just seconds ago. Once again, there was that infamous Jekyll and Hyde bullshit. 

Kasha had fallen to her knees once he had released her, coughing and gasping for the air that now freely filled her lungs. She was surprised, however. That worked? Shit, she was getting better at this! This was one of those instances where she was actually grateful for all of those agonizing years spent in college. Those years and her knowledge of the human psych had just saved her life. Again. She stood and followed after Eddie, walking beside him. "Perhaps if we collect them together, you can keep their hands off of me. With you around, they won't be able to."

Eddie didn't respond. He was still fuming. He wasn't used to the whole "calming down" process. He was used to his normal routine: Get enraged, kill them, and hang them from the rafters. This, right here, was breaking his routine; and he felt incredibly uneasy about it. All he wanted to do was kill her, and slice her lifeless corpse open to string her entrails around the gymnasium in wondrous display. He found himself fantasizing about the prospect. But, each time he wanted to, and truly meant to, she somehow... Talked him out of it. Each and every time. Silently, Eddie cursed the loose knot of the rafter she'd been hanging from only an hour ago. If only she'd died hanging there... If only.

It was then that the both of them spotted a variant at the same time. Kasha looked at Eddie, then silently gestured with a nod of her head for him to go first. Kasha knew that Eddie needed to take out some pent up aggression. So, she'd let him have this one.

Eddie just needed to... Kill something. If he couldn't kill her, then he needed to let his dark desires out elsewhere. He barreled down the hallway after the variant, who ran frantically for his life, shouting as he ran; "NO, NO! God, NO! Spare me!" Evidently, all of the variants in this block knew and vehemently feared Eddie. 

Kasha smirked as she watched Eddie haul ass after his new found prey. She walked after him at a leisurely pace, looking onward at the scene. It was a shame that she didn't have any popcorn. Kasha watched as Eddie practically pounced on the poor bastard, and proceeded to violently thrash his fists into the man's face, decimating his skull upon each impact. Kasha finally caught up with them, watching with her hands on her wide hips. The man underneath Eddie clawed desperately at Eddie's face, fighting for his life. "GOD, NO! WHY?!" He howled, but Eddie decided then that he needed to be silenced. He took out his knife and stabbed him in the gut repeatedly... Or rather, excessively. He wasn't stopping, even long after the variant had succumbed to death. Eddie was pretending that the variant beneath him was Kasha. He needed to... He needed to release the craving somehow. This woman had talked her way out of her death more than once now, and it was sincerely screwing with his head. 

Kasha watched, frowning. She knew what he was doing. So, she remained silent. She let him do his thing. I mean... Whatever worked, right? Therapy was therapy. After enough stab wounds to reduce the variant's torso into a pulpy mess, Eddie finally rose, blood slathered all over his legs. He turned to look at Kasha, the gleam of a sadist in his blue eyes. Kasha simply returned his gaze, now unphased by those familiarly murderous eyes. 

"Don't touch him, darling. He's... Messy. He'll get his filth all over you." Eddie said, huffing, his voice shaking. He grabbed the variant by his heels and began to drag him back to the ceremony room, the variant's intestines carelessly falling out of his carving out torso, trailing behind him. In the body's wake, an opaque trail of crimson could be seen. 

Kasha walked with Eddie in silence. Then, she looked over at him. "Do you feel better now? Did that help?"

He didn't respond. To Kasha, that simply meant that he didn't want to acknowledge that he needed any kind of "help." He wanted to pretend like it never happened; and, Kasha was willing to bet money that he was going to pretend that his new victim was still alive when they got back into the ceremony room, too.

Once they'd returned, Eddie propped the corpse up in a chair. As a result, gravity made more of his intestines collapse out of his body, collapsing down on to the floor around the chair in a horrific splat. Eddie seemed to ignore it, and began wrapping the rope around him. "You're going to have to be quiet when the ceremony begins... We can't have you making such a mess throughout the entire thing." Eddie muttered in the corpse's ear, tying the knot.

God, this guy was so far gone. "How many more guests should we be getting? Do you want to fill up the rest of the seats?" Kasha asked, looking at the ten or so empty seats remaining.

"I would like to, yes. We need a full house for such a momentous occasion, after all." He winked, then walked back out into the hallway. God, this was probably going to take a while.

It seemed like an eternity had passed, but in reality, it had only been about two hours. Kasha had to let Eddie handle the rest of the guests. She didn't want to risk triggering him into yet another rage filled episode. He liked killing far more than she did, anyway. Kasha waited at the alter, the fake mannequin bride being pushed aside while she took it's place. She felt incredibly awkward. She silently wondered how he was going to do all of this, seeing as... Well, they didn't have anything to actually play out a wedding ceremony with.

While she waited for Eddie to return with the last guest, she looked out into the sea of corpses with a slightly morbid smile. "Well, shit. I never imagined that my wedding would be like this. How... Fitting." She snickered to herself, hearing Eddie's heavy footsteps now clambering down the hall in echos. Shortly after, Eddie returned with the last corpse thrown over his broad shoulder. He quickly tied the last one to the remaining empty chair, then eagerly marched up to the makeshift alter.

He stood opposite of Kasha, a slightly crooked smile on his lesioned face. _"I can't wait to tell my sisters about this shit over some drinks later."_ Kasha thought, smirking. She made eye contact with Eddie, who seemed to be figuring out how to go about this. He almost seemed nervous, honestly, judging by how his eyes darted in every direction _but_ Kasha's face. 

He looked at the picture of the "priest," then began speaking for the priest in an exaggerated voice. It seemed like Eddie had probably rehearsed this by himself a couple of times.

"We're gathered here today to celebrate the wedded union of Eddie Gluskin, and the beautiful Kasha Muller. We celebrate the communion and partnership of their now unified marriage..." Kasha found herself tuning him out, finding the entire speech dreadfully boring. But she did find Eddie's impersonation of the priest to be thoroughly amusing. She tried not to laugh. "... Do you, Kasha, take Eddie to be your dearly beloved husband?" Eddie said, his impersonation sounding more like a caricature.

She nodded, with a pained smile. "I do."

"Do you, Eddie, take Kasha to be your dearly beloved wife?" Eddie then shifted back to his normally smooth voice, clearing his throat. "I do."

He switched back to the priest's voice. "Then by my word of law, I now name you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride." Eddie then leaned in, and Kasha had to physically restrain herself from leaning away from him.

She still needed to play her part. If she ever wanted to see her sisters again, she needed to go through with this. Holy shit, she couldn't wait to tell them all about this crazy crap. Kasha leaned forward to reciprocate, and their lips connected. Eddie's arms then wrapped around Kasha's waist, dipping her down slowly like he'd probably seen in those old, corny 1940's movies. He was literally acting out his fantasies right now.

Kasha's mind suddenly flashed back to that one time in Eddie's living space, when he'd decided to "test" her trust by having some fun with her neck... With his lips. She remembered the reaction that her body warranted, and how deeply it had concerned her at the time. Eddie's familiar rough, chapped lips against hers again reminded her of the occasion. She was surprised by the romantic gesture of dipping her back like this. Slowly, he brought her back up.

Eddie felt happy. Instead of intense anger and the desire to kill, he felt _happy._ Mostly because, for once, she hadn't run away. But also because now, he was thinking of a variety of different ways to kill her. Maybe he could hang her like an exceptional trophy in the gymnasium, in her wedding dress... She could be perched in the center, to stand out from the rest of the hanging corpses... Like a gorgeous monument to behold.

While he fantasized about various ways to string her cold corpse up, Eddie looked into Kasha's eyes affectionately. "I love you, darling. Now... All that's left is the conception. The birthing is never easy, I know... But just try to... _endure._ " He hummed, kissing his new wife once more on the lips.

Kasha smiled, despite internally vomiting. "Uh... I-I love you too, honey. I can't wait to have your children." Oh my god. Out of everything that she had to force herself to say during her stay here in this hell hole, that had to be the worst. In truth, Kasha fucking despised children. 

Eddie then released his embrace and grabbed Kasha's hand in his, leading her back down the aisle. In Eddie's mind, every single corpse tied to those chairs was currently alive and applauding the two of them as they exited, throwing celebratory flowers at them. Kasha followed after him with her head hung, dreading what Eddie could possibly have planned for her next. He wasn't actually _serious_ about the whole "conception" thing, right...? 

Eddie led her to his living space once again. But, this time, he'd... Re-arranged things. Kasha felt her stomach twist in disgust. He'd moved his already filthy mattress to the center of the room, and he'd managed to find a multitude of candles and arrange them around the room to create a romantic "atmosphere." He'd also spread dead, wilted flowers all around the mattress. Kasha looked at the scene before her with widened eyes. Oh, fuck. _He was serious about the conception thing._

She... Fuck. She couldn't let this happen. She didn't want this.

Her nerves began to kick up again, and she could feel herself begin to shake with anxiety. Everything in her wanted to just bolt out of that god damned door and never look back. This little fantasy of his had gone too far.

Eddie practically yanked her into the room when her walking suddenly stunted at the doorway.

"I know you must be nervous, darling. You must be as eager as I am to consummate our love." He gestured to the mattress, wanting her to take a seat.

Oh, god.

_No._


End file.
